Laboratory and Inspection Control

Relationship

This diagram shows how the Laboratory Inspection & Control function is integrated in M3.

LI specification

When you create a laboratory inspection (LI) specification for an item, you also define the measurement method. These specifications are either specified in Laboratory Inspection & Control or in Purchase Order Processing.

When Laboratory Inspection & Control is used, final determination of the lot results only occurs within the module. However, inspection can also be performed from other systems, such as Purchase Order Processing, in external systems or manually.

On-hand balance status

Before inspection, when an item or lot is reported from a purchase or manufacturing order, it receives an on-hand balance status that stops it for internal use or from being delivered externally. This prevents the item or lot from specifying the production stream before it is inspected, approved, and has its status raised.

Similarly, items may not be delivered without being approved. The on-hand balance status may only be changed after the lot is inspected as either approved or rejected.

LI request

When a purchase order line for an item is received, it is checked automatically for whether the item must be inspected for quality or not. If inspection is to be done in Laboratory Inspection & Control, an LI request is automatically created.

An LI request for a manufacturing order is created in the same way. The item is checked as to whether it must be inspected. When the inspection is to be done, an LI request is automatically created.

Aging Setup

Many manufactured items, regardless of whether they have LI specifications, need to age before they can be used or sold. Depending on the type of item, the aging can be measured in days, hours, or minutes.

To continuously monitor the aging status of balance identities, there is an autojob mechanism with the purpose of polling the items' reclassification dates and updating their status as the items complete the aging process. On 'Subsystem Job. Open' (MMS975), the Subsystem is 'ASJ' with the Job name of 'MMS975'. The default delay for this job is 180 seconds.

It is important to note that, depending on the Inspection code as well as whether Aging parameters have been defined for a particular manufactured item, the balance identity status of the item will be impacted when the item is reported through 'Manufact Order. Report Receipt' (PMS050).

• For manufactured items with an Inspection code of 0, when the item is reported, the balance identity of the reported item-lot will be in Approved status.
  Note: The exception will be if the Manufacturing Order (MO) is being executed with an MO type that includes aging and the manufactured item has non-zero aging parameters set up on 'Item. Connect Warehouse' (MMS002), the resultant balance identity will be ‘Under Inspection’. The lot will be set to a status of '1 – Under inspection' when reporting through PMS050. It is then re-classified to status '2 – Approved' by the autojob after the aging time has passed.
• For manufactured items with an Inspection code of 1, when the item is reported, the balance identity of the reported item-lot will be in 1, the 'Under Inspection' status.

  For the autojob to change the status of the balance identity, the status of the corresponding MO should be 90. To achieve this status, the ingredients for the MO should be issued using 'Manufact Order. Report Issue' (PMS060) and all the operations reported using 'MO Operation. Report' (PMS070). The item-lot should be put-away through 'Quality-inspected Item. Put away' (PMS130). When the MO is in a status of 90 and the aging time has passed, the autojob will change the status of the balance identity to be '2 – Approved'.

  Note: It is possible to change the status of the balance identity to be 'Approved' when you use the 'Quality-inspected Item. Put away' (PMS130) program for this item-lot. In this scenario, the Aging logic will be disregarded. As a result, the Autojob ignores the balance identity because it is already 'Approved.'
• For manufactured items with an Inspection code of 2, when the item is reported, the balance identity of the reported item-lot will be in 1, the 'Under Inspection' status.

  For the autojob to change the status of the balance identity, the status of the corresponding MO should be 90. To achieve this status, the ingredients for the MO should be issued using 'Manufact Order. Report Issue' (PMS060) and all the operations reported using 'MO Operation. Report' (PMS070). The item-lot should be put-away through ‘Quality-inspected Item. Put away’ (PMS130). As a result, for this item, there will be a LI request created on reporting of output, there is an additional condition to be satisfied for the Autojob to make an impact. Test results should be entered and the LI request should be in a status of at least 70 for the Autojob to take over. When the MO is in a status of 90, the LI spec status is at least 70 and the aging time has passed, the autojob will change the status of the balance identity to be '2 – Approved.'

Before you start

To be able to perform inspections with the use of Laboratory Inspection & Control, it is required that Warehouse Activity Control is installed.