Quality Notification in SAP QM: QM02

What is Quality Notification in SAP QM?

SAP QM Quality Notification contains functions for capturing and processing different types of problems or defects which are identified during inspection (for example, defects resulting from poor-quality goods).

• SAP QM Quality notifications are utilized to analyze the recorded defects and perform root cause analysis of these problems.

In general, SAP quality notification can be used to:

• Elaborate a problem and identify the affected reference objects (for example, material, vendor, manufacturer, and customer)
• Record and store the names of all personnel (partners) who are directly associated with the defect.
• Define processing specifications for the SAP QM quality notification (for example, mentioning a time range within which the defect should be fixed and allocating a priority to the notification)
• Capture individual Defect items pertaining to the problem and analyze the root causes of the defect.
• Mention the corrective actions to be taken (for example, tasks that are executed immediately or corrective activities that are executed after a deep analysis of the defects)
• Track the implementation of corrective actions through status management features of notification. It has a various status such as release, put in process and completed.
• Capture all activities and tasks that have been carried out for the problem rectification.
• Document the nonconformity costs incurred during analysis and resolving a problem.
• Various types of reports pertaining to the problem can be printed, faxed and exported.

Which of these functions apply depends on the notification type selected, so the standard types are described next.

Quality Notification Types in SAP QM

In particular, the SAP QM notifications can help you to process internal and external problems. Three notification types are delivered as standard, and each one points at a different reference object.

Type	Name	Reference Object	Typical Trigger
Q1	Customer complaint	Customer, sales order, delivery	Poor quality goods delivered to a customer
Q2	Complaint against vendor	Vendor, purchase order, inspection lot	Defect found during incoming inspection of purchased material
Q3	Internal problem report	Material, production order, plant	Defect found during in-process inspection on the shop floor

• External Complaints filed by customers – This is standard SAP quality notification type Q1 that deals with the problem associated with quality of goods delivered to the customer. This is used to record customer complaint and take action against the problem reported by the customer.
• External Complaints against vendors – This is standard SAP QM quality notification type Q2 that deals with the problem associated with quality of goods delivered by the vendor. This is used to record a complaint against vendor and take action against the problem identified during an incoming quality inspection of materials.
• Company-internal problems – This is standard SAP QM quality notification type Q3 that deals with the problem associated with quality of goods which is originated inside the company. This is used to record internal problems, which are identified during in-process quality inspections in the shop floor.

The worked example below uses a Q2 notification created directly from a defective inspection lot.

How to record defects and create quality notification

In this step, we will record the defects when quality results are out of tolerance limits after doing the analysis in SAP system.

Step 1) From SAP Easy access menu, open Transaction code QA32, and enter the following details.

1. Select the inspection lot in which results are recorded and have SAP system status as “RREC.”
2. Press “Defects” button from the top of the SAP screen.

After pressing defects button, we will move to the next SAP screen.

Step 2) In this SAP screen,

1. Select the code group “Length” and Code “Too Long” which is the Defect we have found after doing the analysis.

Step 3) In this SAP screen,

1. You can see the material code and inspection lot against which we have created the defects.
2. You can see the Defect code length which is “too long.”
3. Press “Notification Button” on top to create a quality notification.

You will get the message as “quality notification created”.

The notification now exists in outstanding status. Releasing it and recording the follow up is done in a separate transaction.

How to release & complete notification

Step 1) From SAP Easy access screen open Transaction QM02.

Here, we will release and record the tasks & activities to complete the quality notification.

1. Enter quality notification number which we have created in the previous step.

Press Enter button from the keyboard to move to the next SAP screen.

Step 2) In this SAP screen,

1. You can see the Purchase order number against which we have received the defective goods.
2. You can see the inspection lot which is linked with the purchase order number.
3. Press “Items” Tab to move to the next SAP screen.

Step 3) In this SAP screen,

1. You can see the Defect code as “too long” which we have entered in previous steps.
2. Press release button to release the notification.
3. Press “causes” button to define the cause of the problem and move to next SAP sub screen.

Step 4) In this SAP screen, we need to mention the cause of the identified defect.

1. Here, select code group “QM” for the cause which means it is a design fault. These code groups are configured based upon the business requirements.
2. Press “Tasks” button to move to the next SAP sub screen.

Step 5) In this SAP screen, we need to mention the tasks to be performed after identification of a defect.

1. Here, select code group “QM- G2” for the tasks, which means rework needs to be done. These code groups are configured based upon the business requirements.
2. Press “Activities” tab to move to the next SAP sub screen.

Step 6) In this SAP screen, we need to mention the activities to be performed after identification of a defect.

1. Here, select code group “QM- G2” for the activities which means a special complaint to be filed against the vendor. These code groups are configured based upon the business requirements.
2. Press “complete” button to complete the notification process.

Quality Notification Status Flow in SAP QM

Each button pressed in the steps above changes the system status of the notification. Reading these statuses is the quickest way to see where a defect stands without opening every tab.

1. OSNO – Outstanding notification: The notification exists but no processing has started. It appears in the worklist of the responsible department.
2. NOPR – Notification in process: Set when the release button is pressed. Causes, tasks, and activities can now be maintained.
3. TSRL / TSCO – Task released and completed: Applied to individual tasks so partial progress is visible while other tasks remain open.
4. NOCO – Notification completed: Set by the complete button. The notification is closed and a completion date is written.
5. DLFL – Deletion flag: Marks a notification created in error so it is excluded from evaluations.

A notification cannot reach NOCO while mandatory tasks are still outstanding, which is what makes the status a reliable measure of open quality management issues.

Quality Notification Transaction Codes

QA32 and QM02 cover the worked example, but a full defect management cycle uses several more transactions. The table below lists the codes most often needed.

Transaction Code	Purpose
QM01	Create a quality notification directly
QM02	Change a notification: release, causes, tasks, activities
QM03	Display a quality notification
QM10	Notification list, change mode
QM11	Notification list, display mode
QM12	Task list for notifications
QM13	Activity list for notifications
QA32	Record defects on an inspection lot and generate the notification
QS41	Maintain catalogs, code groups, and codes

QS41 is the configuration entry point referenced in troubleshooting, because defects cannot be classified until code groups exist.

Troubleshooting

• Inspection plan must be copied to inspection lot, without which we will not be able to do result recording and usage decision.
• If inspection plan is created after inspection lot, then inspection lot will get CRTD status. And we need to manually assign inspection plan to change status from created (CRTD) to released (REL) in SAP system. After Inspection lot is released then only, we can perform result recording and usage decision.
• The sampling procedure must be assigned in the inspection plan to do any result recording and usage decision or else manually we need to calculate the sample in the inspection lot.
• Code groups and codes need to be configured which depends on the business needs to process quality notifications.
• If the Defects button is greyed out in QA32, the lot has not reached status RREC. Record at least one result first, as shown in the final inspection tutorial.

FAQs