Technical Articles
Quality Certificate Check at Goods Receipt
Disclaimer
This blog will help to implement receipt of certificate at the time of “Goods Receipt”. The process can be implemented to validate receipt of quality certificate or any other mandatory document at the time of GR, so that necessary actions can be taken by quality department.
There are 2 approaches considered in this blog:
- Restrict GR creation, if certificate is missing.
- Allow GR creation, if certificate is missing.
Pre-requisites
To achieve this, QM control key with “Cert required” checkbox active is required. SAP Standard control key “0005 – Delivery release, certificate” is used here.
Config Path : Quality Management -> QM in procurement -> Define Control Key
Configuration Required
One of the important configuration required is Certificate type. Certificate type will decide how system should behave in case of receipt or missing of certificate. Setting “Control without certif” is a key parameter which will decide the behavior at the time of GR.
The certificate type “QCGR” used here, is a custom certificate type.
Config Path : Quality Management -> QM in procurement -> Define Keys for Certificate Processing -> Define Certificate Types
Below are the options available under “Control without certi.” option. In this document below indicator are used:
“C Without lot: Error message, with lot: Status”
“D Without lot: Error message, with lot: Error message”
Master Data
Following are the master data used in the process:
- QM View of Material Master (MM01/02/03).
- Quality Info Record (QI01/02/03), applicable as per the control key used.
1. QM View of Material Master
In QM view, maintain Procurement Data & Activate inspection type ’01’, as shown in the images below:
2. Quality Info Record
As per standard control key “0005” settings, quality info record is mandatory.
Make sure under “Insp. Control => 1 Inspection Active Regardless of Supplier Certification” is active as inspection lot to be created in the process & “Release Until have future date” (as per business requirement).
Note: Quality Info Record creation can be excluded, if “Release Required” indicator of the QM Control key is unchecked.
Processing
Scenario 1 : Restrict GR creation, if certificate is missing.
For this scenario, “Control without certif => D Without lot: Error message, with lot: Error Message” is applicable in certificate profile.
A. GR Creation
Under tab “Purchase Order Data“, it is mandatory to select value in “Cert. Enclosed?” else system will not allow to create GR.
If Selected ‘No’, System will not allow GR creation, as it is selected to display error message in certificate type config.
GR creation is successful. Also, system will create inspection lot with status “CROK”.
Scenario 2 : Allow GR creation, if certificate missing.
For this scenario “Control without certif => C Without lot: Error message, with lot: Status” will be applicable.
A. GR Creation
At the time of GR creation,, system will ask for confirmation of certificate receipt & based on the input given, system will update the necessary status for inspection lot.
i. Cert. Enclosed = Yes.
In this case, system will allow the GR creation & inspection lot will have status ‘CROK‘ i.e. ‘Certificate receipt confirmed‘ & usage decision can be taken.
a. GR Creation
b. Inspection Lot Processing
ii. Cert. Enclosed = No.
In this case, system will allow the GR creation but the inspection lot will be created with status ‘CTCM‘ i.e. Certificate conformation missing & usage decision can’t be taken till status changed to ‘CROK‘.
a. GR Creation
b. Inspection Lot Processing
So, in this case system will not allow to post the UD, till the ‘CROK’ status is updated to the inspection lot.
c. Confirming Receipt of Certificate
As the inspection lot is in CTCM status, system will not allow to take the UD. To perform the UD, it’s required to tell system that certificate is received. This can be done in 2 ways:
- From Inspection Lot
Use below path:
Inspection Lot Number => Edit => Confirm Receipt of Certificate =>Save
- From Quality certificates
There are two transactions which can be used for this i.e. QC52 and QC55, but the process to change the status remains the same.
QC52: This transaction is used for single record processing
QC55: This transaction is used for work list processing
Here, transaction QC55 is used.
Based on the input parameter, system will display the record/s.
Now, select the record & click on button “Change Certificate Data“.
In field “Cert. status“, there are multiple options available. Select status as “2 Certificate received” to update inspection lot status as CROK & Save.
Now, system has updated inspection lot status to CROK & usage decision can be taken for the same.
Conclusion
- By implementing this process, quality team can have control over receipt of necessary certificates at the time of GR.
- In this document only two approaches are explained, but based on the option selected in the field “Control without certif.” of certificate type more scenarios can be mapped as per requirement.
Note: Any suggestions or modifications are always welcome, so that it can be included in the blog.
Happy Learning!!! 🙂
Hi Akshay,
Very Good Document.
But i just have one query. In real time how to check if we have received the quality certificate from the Vendor.
I know that we set the status to CROK during UD, but is there a place to view the actual certificate sent by Vendor. If so then how does the vendor attach the certificate.
Could be a basic question but im not sure how it happens in real time.
h
Thanks
Hi Aditya,
I am glad that found the document useful.
To answer your query, I can suggest couple of approach:
Using GOS is the only option available for the attachment. Usually you can use "Create Attachment" option in GOS for it but this option have drawback of increasing load on SAP database, as it's stores attachments SAP standard tables. If you have DMS(Document Management System) configured, activate document attachment provision to business object BUS2117.
The documents attached to the procurement certificate created in SAP, can be accessed easily from QC52/53/55 or from Inspection lot with below path:
Usage Decision => Environment => Inspection lot origin => Procurement Certificate => GOS
Hope I'm able to answer your query.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi Akshay,
Thanks a lot for your detailed explanation.
SRM system is not in place but i can surely try the 2nd option and test the results.
Regards
Aditya
Hi Aditya,
Always welcome. Let me know if you need any more input on this.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi, good information regarding certificate.
if possible, can someone address this query which is related to certificate. GR was done without certificate and the status of the inspection lot is CTCM. item did not meet specification and defect was raised and the item to be rejected. But system does not allow to perform UD as CROK status is missing. How to address this without confirming the Status of the certificate… thanks
Hello Ram,
There are couple of thing s to be considered:
I can understand that business has done this but, as far as my knowledge goes, there is no alternative without confirming the status of the certificate. System will not allow to do any action unless the status is updated.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi Akshay,
Detailed explanation, very helpful.
Patrick.
Thank you Patrick.
Hi Akshay,
Very detailed explanation, thank you.
But it appears that you are suggesting to confirm receipt of certificate during UD. IMHO, these duties should be separated by means of authorization. One person should confirm receipt of certificate and another person perform the UD. Otherwise users can easily by-pass the entire certificate check which kind of defeats the purpose of this setup, doesn't it?
Jan
Hello Jan,
I'm not suggesting to confirm the certificate receipt during UD, I've just shown the options available to confirm the certificate receipt.
Yes, I do agree there should be different person for both the activities and of course it can be handled through authorization. If you implement proper authorization matrix you can restrict one person doing both the activities.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi Jan,
it is possible to use the 4 eyes process to confirm CA conformitiian.
Hi Akshay,
very nice, thanks!
Just one question... I already created standard Source inspection, where inspection lot with defined characteristics is created way before GR.
Do you know, how to setup this lot to be created with connection to certificate processing?
I have currently just one Insp type activated. I create Source insp via QI07. However it does not contain Certificate requirements.
When I do GR, new lot is created, which has same attributes as olg one, but contains also Certificate statuses...
Task is quite simple - get initial Inspection lot with certificate data.
Jiri
Hi Jiri,
I got your requirement but this is not the ways system works. The concept of "Certificate Required at Goods Receipt" works at the time of Goods receipt only. This is the reason you are not getting certificate related checks for Source Inspection lot created via QI07. Please check the help document for "Certificate required" field in the configuration of "Control key for QM in Procurement".
If you ask me, you need find some workaround for this requirement.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi,
thanks for fast answer. I solved it with "Source insp. - no GR" function in Quality info record.
With this setting is lot created on request via QI07, can be processed standard way.
GR does not create any new inspection lot, but certificate is required, based on customizing settings...
Disadvantage is, that you do not have certificate statuses on lot available (as it is not created after GR) - you need to work with QC55 instead of standard Qm transactions...
Regards
Jiri
Hello Jiri,
Good to hear that you found solution.
Regards,
Akshay
Hi Akshay,
Beautifully explained...!!
Regards
Jayanta
Hi Akshay,
What is the impact of "With out, no skip to stock" on the certificate type?
Thank you,
Sally