Line Rejection

[anand_rao3]

The term "Line Rejection" is quite oftentimes used in many automobile industries. Across all, more or less similar business practices are followed to address this.

The document deals with simplistic approach to map this in to SAP. It would be a pleasure to have your valuable views/ suggestions/corrections to this document to make the process simpler and widely acceptable! Thank you!

1. What is Line Rejection?

Let us first try to understand what exactly is meant by "Line Rejection" with below explanation,

1. Consider the material “A" is supplied by vendor and is inwarded in the system.
2. It is then inspected and Ok quantity is forwarded to Production Shop Floor for further use.
3. When the material “A" is being actually consumed on the shop floor you notice the non conformity in to it.
4. As a result of that you can no more use material “A" and it stops the production line.
5. Many industries follow sampling inspection techniques at incoming stage and cannot invest in to 100% inspection. Sometimes not practicable too!
6. Thus sometimes you find the material (which was okayed at incoming stage on sampling basis) not ok on shop floor production line.
7. Whereas, in most of the cases the material is not at all inspected at incoming stage and later found defective on the production line.
8. And, sometimes the non conformity could be because of internal material transfer from stores to shop floor.
9. The process of stopping material “A" from consumption by quarantining it, analysing the defects, finalizing remedial actions and if required sending it back to the vendor is collectively called as Line Rejection

Note - Line rejection process is different than the in-process rejection. This rejection is referred to vendor supplied materials only and not to the materials that you manufacture in-house.

B.   Mapping Line Rejection in to SAP

Having said that a picture is worth a thousand words, I have attempted to put the information in pictorial view. Where_

RM01 - Raw Materials Storage Location

SF01 - Shop Floor Storage Location

Transaction steps in SAP

1. Go to transaction code QM01
2. Select Q2 as standard notification type
3. It then prompts you to put material document number or purchase order number.
4. This is optional entry. If you specify, it fetches all the details from it - like material code, batch number, vendor etc, else user has to enter manually.
5. Put the non conforming quantity in to complaint quantity field.
6. Mention the defect details
7. There is a provision at the right hand side of the screen in QM01/QM02 i.e. Action box for transferring material to block stock from unrestricted
8. Click on it, verify the details
9. On the save event, system executes 344 movement in the background and posts the stock to block compartment
10. It thus prevents its issuance to the order
11. Similar to other notification types you can later analyse the defects and can records causes, tasks and activities in the notification

Assumption – For moving the stock to blocked compartment with 344 movement the stock should be available in unrestricted use of SF01. If it is already issued entirely to first operation before GR, you first need to reverse it by 262 movement.

Further treatment for blocked stock

1. Through MB52, you can have consolidated list of the stocks that are lying in to block compartment.
2. Now there could be 2 options for quantity in blocked stock
   1. You make it usable again with minor rework. OR_
   2. You send it back to vendor as return delivery
3. It is advisable to create task codes in QS41 for above outcomes and assign the same in task tab in to the same notification as per the case. You can then assign the task to the responsible task processer
4. This helps to track the notification wise status.
   • You should execute 343 movement type in MB1B for bringing the stock in to unrestricted use.

• For sending the material back to vendor return delivery can be triggered through notification. It subsequently executes 161 or 122 movement depending on customization.

5. The responsible task processor is then supposed to mark the task as closed once he or she executes the event of transferring the material to unrestricted use or returning it back to vendor.
6. As the functionality is much flexible, users can set their own action boxes and can trigger desired event by developing custom function modules.

C. Possible ways of Communication and Reports

1. With workflow in place, auto emails can be triggered to task processors as soon as the task is assigned to them.
2. Emails functionality can also be developed for triggering auto email to group of users as soon as the notification is created with PDF copy attachment encompassing all notification details.
3. Smart forms through ABAP are possible for following communications
   • Internal note to stores for lifting and quarantining the non conforming material
   • Internal note to PPC, vendor development and production department
4. Standard reports QM11, QM12, QM15, MB52, and MB51 provide the information related to this topic.

Regards,

Anand Rao