Inheriting Specifications
When a manufactured item is produced, it can be packaged in many different configurations. The resulting packaged items will have quality specifications and tests associated with them and then will be processed by the Quality Management System (QMS). Before being packaged, there may be a scenario where the manufactured item flows through QMS with its own set of specifications and tests. If these specifications and tests are to be observed by the final packaged item (or interim levels of the manufacturing process), QMS can acknowledge this second set of specifications and tests by inheritance. If an item, usually a finished good, is marked for specification inheritance, QMS will determine the manufactured item and gather its specifications and tests that are to be included with the specifications and tests for the packaged item.
In QMS, there is functionality to automatically attach the specifications, tests, and quality control attributes to an order line whenever an item requiring specifications is added to an order. The data must be previously added to the database as part of QMS setup. The setup of an item includes specifications, tests, and quality control attributes with an expected range of values or target values which are copied to become a local set of quality requirements for the order.
Before you start
The setup conditions outlined in Managing Quality Control and Quality Tests, Sets and Specifications must be met. In addition, the 'Item to inherit from' (INHI) setting must be defined on the Product Structure, as explained in Quality Management System (QMS) and Its Impact on Manufacturing Order Processing.
Outcome
There is a function program (QMS704Fnc) that determines the bulk item associated with an item based on data setup in the Item master (MITMAS) table and Product Structure (MPDHED) table. The found bulk item is then used for the specification inheritance.
If the 'Inherit from bulk' (MMSPIH) setting is enabled for an item on the Item master (MITMAS) table, the system determines the standard product structure type that defaults for the item. Once the product structure is found, the system reads the Ingredients (MPDMAT) table. The system finds the ingredient where the Inheritance (INHI) field is set to '1' for that product structure. This ingredient is the bulk/primary item for the product structure and will be populated as the bulk item (BITN) so that the specs can be collected for an order line or QI request. If no ingredient is found with the Inheritance (INHI) setting enabled, the system populates the bulk item (BITN) as blank.
If the 'Inherit from bulk' setting (MMSPIH) is not enabled for an item on the Item master (MITMAS) table, the system populates the bulk item (BITN) as blank.
Function program for inheriting specifications from a bulk item
The QMS704Fnc function program has this operation:
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The InheritBulk operation determines an item's associated bulk item to be used for spec inheritance by searching through the ingredients of the standard product structure that defaults for the item. It is called from the Manufacturing order (MO), Customer order (CO), and QI request.