Beginning of October this year we released SAP S/4HANA 2021.
In this blog post, I will summarize the highlights for the business area
Quality Management as part of the line of business
Manufacturing in SAP S/4HANA 2021.
Read also the blog
Highlights for Manufacturing in SAP S/4HANA 2021 – Part 2: Production Planning, Engineering, Operati... which summarizes the highlights for the business areas
Production Engineering, Production Planning, Production Operations as part of the line of business
Manufacturing in SAP S/4HANA 2021.
Table of content (for quick access, just click on one of the links):
Note that many of the described innovations are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud already, since we have one code line for all SAP S/4HANA deployment modes, and again,
all of these Innovations will also be available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.
Record Inspection results (new app)
With the new Record Inspection Results app, you can record and process results for characteristics for one or more inspection lots effectively. You can also use this app to create defects manually for different categories, such as, inspection lots, inspection operations, and characteristics.

Fig.1: New SAP Fiori app Record Inspection Results
Now a quality technician can record defects manually within the new result recording app. You can record defects for an inspection lot, inspection operation or inspection characteristic.

Fig.2: New SAP Fiori app Record Inspection Results – Create defects
For a preview of future enhancements to this app, see my
2111 blog.
This app is the successor of the Record Inspection Results (Deprecated) app. The deprecated app (as of SAP S/4HANA 2021) will be deleted from the SAP Fiori launchpad in SAP S/4HANA 2022 release. You can continue using the deprecated app until it is deleted. However, it may no longer be available by default on the SAP Fiori launchpad. In this case, you can find it in the app finder.
By the way:
The
Manage Inspection Lots app enables you now to record inspection results and make usage decisions for inspection lots from the worklist page:

Fig.3: 'Manage Inspection Lots' app - record inspection results and make usage decisions
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Manage Inspection Plans
By enhancing the SAP Fiori app
Manage Inspection Plans we have simplified the inspection planning process.
With the Manage Inspection Plans app, you can now:
- Copy dependent characteristic specifications along with the header, material assignments, operations, and characteristics from one inspection plan to create another
- Assign dependent characteristic specifications for the characteristics assigned in inspection plans

Fig.4: ‘Manage Inspection Plans’ app – dependent characteristic specifications
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Problem solving by using the 8D methodology
Resolve internal problems
As of the 2020 release, SAP S/4HANA Quality Management enables continuous improvement through the standardized 8-D problem-solving process and its predefined process steps in Quality Management. The 8-D methodology supports you to identify, correct, and eliminate recurring problems (see my
2020 blog).
Now, the
Resolve Internal Problems app enables you to get a
visual overview of the step statuses on the selection screen of the internal problem-solving processes.

Fig.5: Resolve Internal Problems app – Step Status Overview
In addition, you can
add comments to each step of a problem-solving process and
assign attachments to the header data of an internal problem-solving process.
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SAP Supplier Problem-Solving
Please read also my blog post
SAP Supplier Problem-Solving cloud application – Supplier 8D
which describes the structured handling of problems based on 8D methodology in SAP Supplier Problem-Solving.
SAP Supplier Problem-Solving is a separate app on SAP BTP (business technology platform) with the following capabilities:
- Collaboration hub for buyers and suppliers
- Support for 8D methodology
- Integration with Quality Management
- Status and overdue steps indicators.
- Guided root cause analysis including 5 Why
- Monitoring of the implementation success of corrective and preventive actions
- Fast and easy access to new cloud innovations
For further information on Supplier Problem-Solving see
SAP Help Portal and find out more on
SAP Store.
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If you follow my
SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Manufacturing & Supply Chain blog series, you may already be familiar with the innovations described above because they are already available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
The following innovations are available in On-Premise deployment only.
Manage FMEAs (new app)
The new SAP Fiori app
Manage FMEAs and
the existing transactions in SAP S/4HANA On-Premise enables you to create, process and monitor failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA).
Use the NEW SAP Fiori App to…
- …easily create new FMEAs by building up structure nets in a graphical form
- …monitor FMEAs with high risk and identify
- …determine build-in Action Priority determination to comply with certain industry standards
- …to make use of Fiori UI capabilities and herewith increase ease of use
Use the existing transactions for editing and processing FMEAs.

Fig.6: New SAP Fiori app 'Manage FMEAs''
Use the
Manage FMEAs app to easily create new FMEAs by building up structure nets in a graphical form:
- Use graphical “Elements View” to show details or simply create or assign…
- …Component or Predecessor (bottom down)
- …Consumer or Successor (bottom up)
- Use graphical “Functions View” to show details, linkages, and easily create and
connect functions
- Use graphical “Failure Modes View” to create and connect Failure Modes
- Use graphical “Functions/Failure Modes View” to monitor Effects, Failure
Modes, Functions and their dependencies

Fig.7: 'Manage FMEAs' app - Structure Analysis
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EWM QM Integration – Split Sample Quantity in EWM
Now, you can
use calculated sample size for moving a sample to quality inspection. The following figure shows the supported process of quality inspection after goods receipt from supplier or in-house production with an example: Starting point is an inbound delivery with a quantity of 3 pallets and an inspection lot with a lot quantity of 3 pallets and a sample size of 3 pieces. The 3 pallets are splitted: 1 pallet is moved by the blue colored warehouse task from the goods receipt area to the quality area whereas 2 pallets are moved by the green colored warehouse task from the goods receipt area to the final putaway bin.

Fig.8: Quality inspection after goods receipt from supplier or in-house production - use calculated sample size for moving a sample to quality inspection
The following features are available:
- Rounding of sample size to handling unit (HU) or package size
- Split inspection stock into sample and remaining “putaway” stock
- Create warehouse tasks to Q-work center and final putaway bin
- BAdI: HU or SN assignment to sample
- Process- and layout oriented storage control
- Handling of sample size changes (transaction QAC3)
The process is supported with the following deployment options:
- Embedded EWM in S/4HANA 2021
- Decentral EWM on S/4HANA 2021
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Check out also the
What’s New Viewer which provides more innovations like new CDS views, ODATA APIs and business events.
Finally, I want to draw your attention to new product videos in the area of quality management:
Thanks for reading this blog!
For more information on SAP S/4HANA 2021, check out the following links:
- SAP S/4HANA release info: sap.com/s4hana
- SAP S/4HANA Community here
- SAP S/4HANA Release Highlights community call here
- The Link Collection for Manufacturing & Supply Chain here
- SAP S/4HANA PSCC Digital Enablement Wheel here
- Inside SAP S/4HANA Podcast here
- Join the SAP S/4HANA Movement
- Best practices for SAP S/4HANA here
- Help Portal Product Page here
- Feature Scope Description here
- What’s New here
Follow us via
@SAP and #S4HANA, or myself via
@GerhardWelker and
LinkedIn