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Recording Dates in Results Recording

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

Hi.

I have an inspection with a task list. Several samples will be tested each time an inspection lot is created. I have a number of MICs that are quantitative / calculated to determine results of lab testing - this is all working great. The problem is that for each of my samples I need to be able to document general information about the sample. The types of information that needs to be documented are, for example, dates and sample numbers (not serialized using SAP).

Primarily these dates need to be used to generate date range specific reports of the lab results. It is for this reason that I do not want the users documenting dates in the inspection description field in results recording.

Does anyone know if using the QM_INPUT_PROCEDURE BAdI can the result field of a quantitative MIC be formatted as a date? Or has anyone had a similar problem that they have been able to solve? Is Sample Management / Physical Samples the direction to take?

Thank you very much in advance,

Cristin

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

former_member42743
Active Contributor

Have you looked at using inspection points for this?

When a new inspection point is created, you can config into the inspection point the date and time to default in.

FF

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

Unfortunately I cannot have anything default in. It needs to be data entered. The types of information we need to log is Donation Date (of a blood donation), Date Result Received (of the lab test), donation number (on the bag) etc.

I'm at a loss where to put this.

former_member42743
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Ok. Here's one way around this.

You can read this post:

http://sapfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=14682&p=43885&hilit=datecharacteristicinspectionlot#p43885

But basically you use numeric MIC and the date is recorded in the form yyyymmdd. So for today it would be 2010622. You can even set a spec range at the begining of each year. So the range would be 20100101 to 20101231. This could help cut down on typos as well.

This number then gets copied to the batch record to a linked hidden numeric characteristic. A dependency is used to convert the number to the appropriate date. The dependency then updates a second characteristic with the date. It is this second date characteristic then that you can use in your reports. If you want to make sure the date formatted characteristic is changed due to additional testing or sampling you can include an IF NULL or an IF INITIAL statement in the dependency so once the characteristic has a value, it wouldn't be updated if the dependency was called again.

I am guessing each blood donation is being set up as a separate batch number.

FF

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

Thank you very much for the link and the suggestions. We are still in the proof of concept stage and haven't actually got the units set up in SAP yet. For this reason I am not sure if each donation will be a separate batch.

However, short of being allowed to enter dates as a quantitative result, this workaround appears to be the closest to a solution for logging dates in results recording so I will give it a try if the units are setup as batches.

Again, thank you for the help.

former_member42743
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Cristin,

I would also seriously consider physical sample management for this application. I think if you are doing blood testing than you will have to go that route to satisfy regulatory issues unless you are in some type of non-regulated area like animal blood testing.

I'd consider creating a physical sample for each donated unit and MAYBE then use the batch number to represent a day's collection, or a day's collection from a particular collection site.

It might be possible to set up classification somehow for samples. It is not standard SAP so I'm not sure about that. It is possible to add objects into the classification system but I'm not 100% sure on all the requirements and the impact of adding an object like physical samples. But I think it is worth the effort to explore. I'd maybe ask SAP about this because I can see a lot of use for the ability to classify physical samples. Then if you can classify physical samples, as you can batches, you could include all the relevant dates in the sample classification.

FF

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

I have managed to set up the inspection plan to use physical samples and this seems to be the right direction (thanks!). I'm not sure what you mean by classifying the physical samples, however, I've explored the options in the Inspection Point/User Field Combination and there seems to be some good fit there. It only allows one user defined field that is a date but I have an ABAPer looking into adding additional date fields there. If this works out it might be the solution we are looking for, so long as we can successfully report using these user defined fields.

We are getting close...

former_member42743
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Rather than trying to add another user field in date format, I might suggest another approach. In the inspection point identifier set up, SAP provides some example FM's that can be used to check a users entry into a field or used to supply a default value to a user field.

Since you want the user to enter in a date, you might be able to take the FM used to default a value and use it instead to delete out the system defaulted date and time. Thus the those two fields are presented as null to the user.

I've never tried that but in theory it should be possible. That would be much easier than trying to add another date field.

The other option is to use the verification FM to check the value entered in a user text field to see if it was inputted in a date format. In this manner you use a general text field as a date field but use the FM to make sure it is valid.

FF

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

I am having trouble assigning points for your previous reply.

We have a go ahead to move this project from proof of concept into reality. Although I don't know exactly how we will input our dates yet I will take your suggestions and run with it.

I will mark this as answered. Thank you very much.

former_member42743
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Good luck with the next stage! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions and I'll try to help u if I can.

FF

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

Further information provided...

I have received some code from SAP that uses input processing to ensure that a quantitative MIC is entered and stored as a date. I understand this is delivered in ECC6 but needs to be coded for previous versions (our case). This will go a long way to helping us log the number of dates we require for an inspection point without having to customize the inspection point user combinations.

Cristin

former_member42743
Active Contributor
0 Kudos

Any idea if that was 6.0 or a later enhancement pack like EHP4?

FF

cristin_charbonneau
Participant
0 Kudos

I'm sorry, I don't know because we are on 4.7. I can send you the emails from SAP that includes the code we implemented if you want.

Cristin

former_member42743
Active Contributor
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That would be great. Please send to Tillerman58 at yahoo mail

Thanks!

FF