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Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal

Linking MIC to Class Characteristic

Introduction: This documents describes the step by step procedure to maintain the link between Master inspection characteristic and Class characteristic.

I have often seen people struggling with the linkage of a MIC to the characteristics of batch classification. This generally is required where an organisation or system need the final values of Batch to come from Quality department. e.g. In a manufacturing industry, finished product is generally inspected by Quality department and thus final gradation is approved.

There are few basic steps which are required to set up the linking of MIC to CC.

MICs can categorized into Qualitative and Quantitative. It is similar to Data type of a characteristic i.e Numeric and Character formats.

I would specifically emphasis on Qualitative part or Character format since most project counter this part later on due to lack of co-ordination or something else among PP and QM guys.

Following abbreviations are used, Qualitative= QL, Quantitative= QT, Character format= CH, Numeric format= NUM

  • Linking a Qualitative MIC to CHAR format Characteristic

In QM module, when a QL MIC is created, a catalog need to be assigned to record the values during result recording. This is different from assigning predefined values to CH type characteristic. Lets say  a catalog QUADEC is prepared. Now this need to be assigned to Both QL MIC and CH Characteristic to maintain the link.

  1. Assigning Catalog to CH ‘Decision’. Use TCode CT04 .

1.1 Initial page look like this,

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1.2.  Now clicking on tab ‘Values’ would take you to next screen. Here you click on ‘Other value check’ to see a window. You choose Catalog char. I would like to mention here that it is frequently seen that predefined values are assigned directly to CH characteristic, which later creates problem while maintaining the link.

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1.3. As soon as you choose, system would ask you to assign plant and applicable catalog. Enter the plant and use F4 to see the available list of catalogs. In this case, I have taken ‘QUADEC’ for CH DECISION

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1.4. After entering the plant and catalog, click on ‘Save’ to create the CH characteristic with required value

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Now the requirement is that whenever QM person enters the Quality decision during result recording, that should update the batch characteristic DECISION. To achieve this, QL MIC QQUALITY would be created.

2. Use Tcode QS21 and enter values as shown below and press enter. DECISION is mentioned in the Class characteristic tab since this would be linked with MIC QQUALITY.

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2.1 Once you press enter, message would be displayed indicating the basic behavior and attributes have been adopted from the characteristics. This can basically be defined as that if the linking class characteristic is of CHAR type, MIC cannot be created with Quantitative format but with Qualitative format only.

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Enter again to see the new window.

2.2. In this screen, default values and control indicators have adopted from CH DECISION (refer highlights). MIC has automatically been assigned as Qualitative and indicator for catalog is also set.

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2.3 Click on Control indicators to complete the desired settings. Also see that indicator for ‘Charac. attributes’ is grayed out and thus cannot be changed.

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2.4 Maintain other control indicators and system will take you initial screen (screen no 2.2). Here, if you click on tab ‘Catalog’ you would see that QUADEC is

already assigned to QL MIC QQUALITY (refer highlight)

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/9_326375.jpg

2.5 Save the MIC to get confirmation.

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Now on wards, whenever QM personal enter the values for QQUALITY and close the inspection lot, same would be updated in the characteristic DECISION in batch classification.

  • Linking a Quantitative MIC to NUM format Characteristic

To link the QT MIC to NUM Characteristic, procedure is similar to what I have mentioned above. Only difference is that while maintaining the control indicators in QS21, system would not let you to change following control indicators,

  • Lower specification limit
  • Upper specification limit
  • Confirm values
  • Measurement unit

  • Maintaining the link after the creation of MIC & Characteristic separately

If the MIC and Characteristic are already created in the system and link was not maintained initially, same can be done in following way.

Go to QS23 to change the MIC, and enter the Characteristic name in the Class characteristic tab.

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Additional Features,

  1. You can only have a 1:1 relationship between a class characteristic and a master inspection characteristic (that is, you cannot reference the same class characteristic in several master inspection characteristics)
  2. Control indicators for MIC are automatically set in accordance with that of class characteristic.
  3. If a CH Characteristic with predefined values (without catalog) has been used once, same cannot be linked to QL MIC in any way (none that I’m aware of).
  4. Automatic batch valuation occurs on the basis of inspection results once the inspection is completed.
  5. Transfer of inspection results would take place only when the inspection is being carried out with respect to material specification or task lists.
  6. Batch class is maintained in the material master Classification view.


Configuration setting for Transferring the results to the Batch:

In config settings, QCC0

Basic settings>> Maintain settings at Plant level>> InsLot completion>>  ‘Batch valuation without mat spec’  must be ticked on (if the task list is used for result recording). Else you need to maintain the material specification through QS61.

This is required for transferring inspection results to batch classification

Kind regards,

Nitin Jinagal


PS:  Contribution towards any correction/ modification/addition related to document is welcomed and well appreciated.

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      33 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Deb .M
      Deb .M

      Definitely a good one for beginners... 🙂

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Mohanty,

      Thanks for encouraging me in my first document.

      Regards,

      ntn 

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Ntn

      Very helpful & nicely explained.

      Regards,

      Gaurav

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Gaurav 🙂

      Rgds,

      ntn

      Author's profile photo Aditya S
      Aditya S

      Hi Nitin,

      Thanks for sharing this document. It has enhanced my knowledge about linking MIC to Class characteristic.

      Need small clarification, a) do we need to make any other configuration settings other than what you have explained to transfer MIC values to update the characteristic values of the batch.

      b) Does this updation is done automatically after doing result recording?.

      Appreciate if you can reply to my queries.

      Thanks a lot for sharing this document to all. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Aditya,

      In config settings, Under the QM plant settings>> Inspection lot completion a tab named 'Batch valuation without mat spec'  must be ticked on. Else you need to maintain the material specification through QS61.

      This is required for transferring inspection results to batch classification..

      ntn

      Author's profile photo Aditya S
      Aditya S

      Thanks Nitin for ur suggestions. 🙂

      Author's profile photo Mehmet Ozgur Unal
      Mehmet Ozgur Unal

      keep it up ..

      Ozgur

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Ozgur

      ntn

      Author's profile photo ChennakeshavaRao Chinnam
      ChennakeshavaRao Chinnam

      Good document ntn ....

      Kesava

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great document. A very nice supplement to SAP Help.

      Author's profile photo Arijit Banerjee
      Arijit Banerjee

      It's a Good Document for beginners. Thanks for sharing it.

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks Arijit

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Where is the like button.... 😆

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      LoL 😆 Strange issue. You gotta contact Higher management to fix this 😉

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      At last I found it. I was always confused in linking the qualitative mic to char type characteristic. I never went for other value check and kept inserting the data in values. This document helped me a lot. Thank you very much for sharing this stuff.

      regards,

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Im glad it helped you

      Author's profile photo Diwakar N Deshpande
      Diwakar N Deshpande

      Hi Nitin,

      Sorry to ask, but in which specific business process this functionality is used?

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Hi,

      I don't think there is any specific business process to use this but it can be used in general. I believe I mentioned a bit about its usage in the document itself.

      This generally is required where an organisation or system need the final values of Batch to come from Quality department. e.g. In a manufacturing industry, finished product is generally inspected by Quality department and thus final gradation is approved.

      Above statement in available in the document. If I'm still unclear of your query, please let me know.

      ntn

      Author's profile photo Werner W
      Werner W

      Excellent article - nicely explained.

      Thanks for writing!

      W

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks 🙂

      Im glad this doc could help you!

      NJ

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Nitin,

      Thanks for sharing the document.

      Only one question I have that how you have created the Catalog?

      Thanks & Regards,

      Abhishek Arora

      Author's profile photo Akshay Kokate
      Akshay Kokate

      Good document...keep it up

      Author's profile photo SHANTA MISHRA
      SHANTA MISHRA

      Hi Nitin, this is a really informative thread. I have one question, can we directly link MIC with batch characteristics without using VC? Is there any standard settings without going for enhancements etc.

      Author's profile photo Nitin Jinagal
      Nitin Jinagal
      Blog Post Author

      Yes we can. No enhancement is needed to link MIC with BC.

      Author's profile photo Chao Ge
      Chao Ge

      Hi Nitin,

      Do you know how to customize MIC WEB UI?

      Author's profile photo Narendra Reddy
      Narendra Reddy

      Hi Nitin,

      I have one query about QT MIC and Class Char.  If MIC as a results confirmation - summary recording, and what needs to select in Class Char value assignments single or multiple ?.

      I have a problem with MIC with summary recording, but Class Char is Single - results are not  getting copied.

       

       

      Author's profile photo Valancia Diniz
      Valancia Diniz

      Excellent document:)

      Author's profile photo Vignesh Veerasamy
      Vignesh Veerasamy

      Hi Nitin Jinagal

      Great document with clear explanations.

      Vignesh V

      Author's profile photo Faisal Khan
      Faisal Khan

      Hi Nitin Jinagal,

      Very helpful info. I was looking for something else and came across this article which definitely added more to my knowledge. I had a query regarding the Limit settings for Quantitative MIC and was hoping if you could just open my Query i posted a week back and share your insights.

      https://answers.sap.com/questions/13500724/result-recording-upper-limit-to-cover-over-10-valu.html

      Regards

       

       

      Author's profile photo JAYANTA KUMAR MAHANTA
      JAYANTA KUMAR MAHANTA

      Hi Nitin Jinagal

      Excellent one ..!!

       

      Regards

      Jayanta

      Author's profile photo JAYANTA KUMAR MAHANTA
      JAYANTA KUMAR MAHANTA

      Hi Nitin Jinagal

      Excellent Document...!! Thanks for sharing.

      Regards

      Jayanta

      Author's profile photo Dharma Theja Kavuturu
      Dharma Theja Kavuturu

      Jayanta Ji,

      As Nitin ji proposed a good document, wish to share one issue I have faced where multiple materials having class characteristic (example: Quantitative 'Assay'), where the situation come that for each material, we have to create separate class char to link with separate Assay MIC ( 1+1). For this, one of team member proposed a good document using calculated MIC to copy the result of Assay to MIC where to batch char.

      For this Mr.Craig document using Inspection specification helped. ( This is just for sharing).

      Thanking you,

      Theja