Holds & the Shipping Gate
A quality hold keeps suspect material from being used or shipped until someone decides what to do with it. The shipping gate is the last check before goods leave: every shipment is checked for holds, open nonconformance reports, certificates, lots and inspections, and is stopped or warned according to the quality profile.
Together they make quality work for a distributor as well as a manufacturer — material that is on hold, under investigation or missing its paperwork does not reach a customer by accident.
Holds
Where to Access
Quality → Issues, Holds view. It lists quality holds as Active, Released or Cancelled, with where each came from:
- Failed inspection – placed by an inspection whose plan holds on failure.
- Certificate to follow – placed at receiving when a certificate is set to hold until it arrives.
- Placed by hand – placed by a user.
- Nonconformance – covered by a nonconformance report.
What a Hold Blocks
- While a work order is on hold, its operations cannot be started or completed.
- While a lot, serial, receipt line or shipment is on hold, it cannot ship.
Working with Holds
- Place a hold – Put a hold on by hand with a Reason and what it is on: a work order, lot, serial (item and serial number) or shipment. Holds on a receipt line are placed automatically, by a failed inspection or a certificate that is still to follow.
- Release hold – Records Release notes and a Corrective action. Only an active hold can be released.
- Raise nonconformance – Opens a nonconformance report pre-filled from the hold.
Some holds take care of themselves:
- A hold waiting for a certificate is released automatically when the certificate file is attached, and cancelled if the certificate or its receipt line is deleted.
- When the last disposition of a nonconformance report runs, the holds the report covers are released.
- Waiving an inspection does not release the hold its failure placed — release it separately.
The Shipping Gate
Quality Readiness on a Shipment
A shipment shows its quality readiness:
- Quality: ready to ship
- Ships with quality warnings
- Cannot ship until this is resolved
with links to Review holds and Review certificates so you can see what is in the way before you try to ship. You can also inspect from the shipment with Inspect this shipment.
What Is Checked
When you mark a shipment shipped, ianaiERP checks the material leaving for:
- Quality holds and open nonconformance reports.
- Certificates that are missing, unverified, expired or rejected.
- Expired lots and missing lot data.
- Required final or pre-shipment inspections that have not passed.
Block or Warn
- Holds and open nonconformance reports always block, whatever the profile says.
- Everything else blocks when the profile is set to Block shipping, and only warns when it is set to Warn and ship. When no profile sets a choice, shipping warns.
A blocked shipment opens Blocked by quality with the reasons. Fix what is listed, or someone with the quality override permission can choose Ship anyway and give a Reason for shipping anyway — the reason is recorded on the shipment with their name.
The same check runs when a relocation leaves for another company.
Common Problems
- "The shipment is blocked but I have no Ship anyway option." Shipping through a block needs the quality override permission. Ask someone who has it, or fix what the message lists.
- "The shipment is blocked by a hold I already dealt with." Check Issues → Holds — the hold must be released, not just the inspection waived.
- "An operation will not start or complete." The work order is on hold. Release the hold once the problem is dealt with, or run the nonconformance report that covers it.
- "Material received with a certificate to follow is still held." Attach the certificate file; the hold releases by itself.
Best Practices
- Use Block shipping for customers and items where paperwork is contractual; Warn and ship where it is advisory.
- Always record a meaningful Corrective action when releasing a hold — it is the audit trail.
- Keep Ship anyway to a small group of people and review the recorded reasons regularly.