Introduction & Setup
Quality checks material at the points where it arrives, is made, and leaves. You describe what an item, a category or a customer needs in a quality profile — lot data such as a heat number, certificates such as a mill test report, and inspections at receipt, during production, at the end of a work order or before shipping. From then on ianaiERP asks for those things at the right moment, holds material that fails, tracks what is decided about it in a nonconformance report, and stops a shipment that does not meet its requirements.
Quality is an add-on that needs only Inventory, so it works for a distributor as well as a manufacturer.
Where it lives
- If your company makes things, Quality sits in the Manufacturing menu. Otherwise it sits in the Inventory menu.
- The Quality workspace has three tabs: Inspections, Issues and Traceability.
- A Setup button, shown to users who can change quality records, opens the quality profiles.
- The code lists quality uses (certificate types, checkpoint types, defect codes) live under Miscellaneous, in its Quality section.
Use it when you need to
- Inspect incoming goods, operations, finished work orders or outgoing shipment lines against a checklist.
- Require certificates and lot data from suppliers, and keep the files on record.
- Hold suspect material so it cannot be used or shipped until someone decides what to do with it.
- Record a nonconformance and what is done with the material: use it, rework it, scrap it or return it to the vendor.
- Trace a lot, serial, heat, shipment or order back to what it was made from and forward to who has it.
How the pieces connect
A quality profile says what is required. Receiving checks lot data and certificates as goods come in. Inspections fall due at receipt, during production, at the end of a work order or before shipping. A failed inspection can place a hold and open a nonconformance report, whose dispositions decide what happens to the material. Finally, every shipment passes through a quality gate that checks holds, certificates, lots and inspections before the goods leave.
Setting up Quality
1. Check the code lists
Open Miscellaneous and find the Quality section: Certificate Type, Checkpoint Type and Defect Code. Every company starts with the common ones — for example the certificate types mill test report (MTR), certificate of analysis (COA) and certificate of conformance (COC) — and you can add your own.
Once a code is created, only its name can change. A built-in code cannot be deleted; deactivate it instead.
2. Create a quality profile
Open Quality, select Setup, and choose New quality profile. Give it a name and a code, then use Applies to to choose where it applies: every item, a category (and everything below it) or a single item — for all customers or for one customer.
Then add what the profile requires:
| Section | What you set |
|---|---|
| Lot & serial data | A built-in field (heat number, expiry date, lot description) or one of your custom fields, and when it is captured: at receipt, at production, or wherever the lot is created. |
| Certificates | The certificate type and when it is needed: Each receipt, Each lot or Each shipment. Tick May follow to let receiving go ahead with the certificate marked to follow, Hold until it arrives to hold that material until the file is in, and Must be verified if someone has to review the file before it counts. |
| Inspections | One or more plans, each with a stage (Receipt inspection, In-process inspection, Final inspection, Pre-shipment inspection), how much to inspect (Every unit, First piece, A percentage, A fixed number), whether it is Required, what happens When it fails, and its checkpoints with measurement type and limits. |
| Shipping | Block shipping, Warn and ship, or inherit from a broader profile. |
How profiles combine
When several profiles apply to the same item, the most specific one wins, field by field: an item's profile overrides its category's, and a customer's profile overrides both. When no profile sets the shipping choice, shipping only warns.
3. Agree extra requirements on a sales order
A sales order has a Quality requirements panel for requirements agreed with that customer on that order, either for the Whole order or for one line. Requirements that already come from the customer's profile are shown there too and apply without being repeated. When a purchase order is created from the sales order, the requirements meant for the supplier are copied onto it and printed for the vendor.
4. Set the company options
In your company settings:
- Quality Scrap Account — the account scrapped material is charged to. Left empty, the default inventory adjustment account is used.
- Certificate of Conformance Statement — the sentence printed above the signature on a certificate of conformance.
- The number formats for inspections (for example INSP-0001) and nonconformance reports (NCR-0001).
Recommended order
- Review the code lists under Miscellaneous → Quality.
- Create profiles for the categories, items and customers that need them.
- Set the company options.
- Start receiving and inspecting. See Inspections.
- Handle failures with Nonconformance and Holds & the Shipping Gate.