Quality Certificate Printing Issue for assembly

[Former Member]

Dear Expert

I am not sure how to achieve this(point 2 below) or even if its possible to do in standard SAP or not. So requesting your help to provide some suggestions.

We are in Chemical manufacturing business and the third party manufacturer produce certain product for us and send those to our customer or we buy from them . They produce COA for each batch of same product and send to us / customer. One particular product can have more than 10 batches in a shift / day , but when we receive it in SAP against PO we create a unique batch for the inventory. Third party manufacturer not using SAP system now, but we are planning to bring them in our ongoing QM Implementation landscape. In SAP the third party manufacturer is set up as a "Plant" and we Procure all products from them and sell to customer. They use different stand alone system for Production & QM now. The batch number they produce currently different than the batch number we receive.

Third party manufacturer produce different products e.g. P1, F1

1. When they produce P1 in say 10 different batches for P1 , they inspect all batch results and send 10 COA against the inspected result. This scenario we can easily map in SAP using 89 Inspection Type and Lots.

2. When they produce F1 with batch XX, they do not want to record any result for batch XX, but they only want to reference pre- identified batch from P1 and print the test result into COA for  batch XX. For integrated SAP system (PP) we would have achieved that easily, but in this case Production is out of SAP. We have plan to  make batch XX available in SAP using some program or manually.

As I said those third party not in SAP now, so when we will implement only SAP QM for them , what can be the best approach to achieve this (point 2)?

Any input will be highly appreciated.

Thanks

SK

[former_member42743]

I dont' think that this is possible without development work.

I would suggest doing the following.

Make sure that upon receipting in the products, a vendor batch is always enterred into the receipt. The vendor batch should be the P1 bulk batch.

You then can investigate using a batch job or user exit that would look at certain materials, (or materials only in the mfg virtual plant), can create an entry in to the Batch where used list.  If you can add a record to this table, then the standard COA production chain functionality should work.  You would add a record indicating that F1 was produced using P1 or P6 or whatever was put in as the vendor batch.

I have known companies to update this table with records.  The table can be rebuilt from scratch if needed due to corruption so risk is low.  (rebuildig it can take some time if it needs to be done.)

See answer to question 7 at this link:

FAQ: Batch where-used list - 619914 | Batch Management/Batch Where-Used List FAQ Notes | SAP Techies

Craig

[Former Member]

Thanks All.

I was exploring options outside any development work we might avoid..but looks like its unavoidable.

I will work on it and update you on the outcome once we test the desired result in coming weeks.

Best Regards

SK

[anand_rao3]

1. Hi SK,

I assume that you do not have manufacturing set up for P1 and F1 products and hence procuring from outside manufacturer and selling it to your customer.

I have few queries here to understand it further correctly!

1. Why the third party manufacturer is created as plant code in your SAP system? Is that the legal entity which belongs to your company code? If not, then it should be a normal vendor.
2. Are you receiving the goods in your plant or your manufacture directly dispatches the same to your customer?

As per my understanding, it doesn't matter which ERP system your vendor is following. Hence possibly there could always be the difference between material and/or batch codes that your vendor follows and codes that you follow in your plant. Finally the COA should contain the same batch numbers' reference which your end customer is going to receive and not the internal numbering. I also understand that you have issues with F1 product only as for P1 the process you are following suits you.

Your vendor does not wish to inspect the consignment for F1 while they dispatch from their premises and want the reference of P1 results for F1 COA printing purpose. This could be feasible with inspection lot copy functionality but your vendor should be on SAP and COA should be printed by you vendor.

As COA is mandatory for P1 and F1, what I could suggest is, you can print COA at your plant until you supplier runs on SAP. You may have to carry out goods receipt at your plant for inspection lot generation.

Anand

[Former Member]

Hi Anand

Thanks for your reply.

This is a contractual manufacturer for us, and it's a legal entity within our company code. They only produce for us following our guideline .The production inventory is built up in SAP using Purchase Order and then sold to customer from this third party plant(account assignment PO).  We also receiving goods from this manufacturer and they send the customer directly as well. We bill the customer against Sales Order and pay the vendor for the PO.

This third party manufacturer does not inspect product F1 because there is nothing to inspect, as the product F1 is nothing but the Assembly product of bulk chemical P1. What that means is, they pack the bulk product P1 into some packaging (F1) so there is no need to re-inspect the same bulk batch which they already inspected and recorded result against P1 batches (10 or more batches). But while sending these F1 batches to customer against Sales Order they currently print COA using the existing legacy system referring pre-identified any one test batch result of P1.

As the third party manufacturer will use only SAP QM module (no PP/PI), so finding difficulty to identify the corresponding P1 (Bulks) batch for the F1 (assembly) systematically. because P1 may have more than 10 batches inspected and result recorded, and while trying to print COA for the assembly (F1) they would like to refer any of those 10 batches from P1 (which one they know) to refer to to print in the COA for the F1.

Issue is how SAP will know which batch of P1 they want to refer for F1 to print in COA ? And how we can achieve this ?

Thanks

SK