Inspections and Non-Conformances

Where quality matters, receipts and production output are inspected before the stock is treated as good.

Where to find it

Architect Panel → ERP - Operations:

• Inspections — what was checked, by whom, and the result
• Non-Conformances — what failed, the disposition and the follow-up
• Stock Lots — the batch an inspection or failure attaches to

Inspections

An inspection records a check against a receipt, a lot or a production output — what was checked, who checked it, when, and the outcome.

Recording the inspector and the time is what makes the record evidence rather than an assertion. "It was inspected" is a claim; "inspected by J. Patel at 14:20 on the 3rd against lot 4471" is a record.

Non-conformances

When something fails, a non-conformance captures what was wrong, how much is affected, and what is to be done — use as is, rework, return to supplier, scrap.

The disposition matters as much as the failure, because it determines the stock movement that follows. A scrap disposition writes stock off; a return generates a movement back to the supplier; use-as-is leaves the stock but records that a decision was taken.

Tie it to lots

Record the lot on the inspection and on the non-conformance. That is what connects a quality failure to genealogy, so you can answer which outputs used the affected batch and where they went.

An NCR without a lot tells you something went wrong but not what to do about it, which is half a record.

Use it for supplier performance

Non-conformances aggregated by supplier are the most honest supplier quality metric you will have, because they are recorded at the point of failure by the person who found it — rather than compiled at review time by somebody reconstructing the quarter.

Analytics can report on them like any other datastore, so a supplier review can open with the actual numbers.

Keep the process light

An inspection regime nobody completes is worse than none, because it produces a record that looks like assurance and is not. Inspect what genuinely carries risk, make recording it quick, and resist adding checks after every incident until the form takes ten minutes.

Worked example

A goods-in inspection fails a delivery of seals on dimensional tolerance. The NCR records the lot, quantity affected and a return-to-supplier disposition, generating the movement. Genealogy confirms none of the lot reached production. At the quarterly supplier review, three NCRs against that supplier in six months are the agenda rather than an impression.

Recommendations

• Always record the lot.
• Record the disposition, not just the failure.
• Inspect by risk, not uniformly.
• Report NCRs by supplier and use them in reviews.