Quality Inspector can be used with Business Central warehouse receiving to keep inventory requiring a Certificate of Analysis (COA) or a Quality Inspection document in a designated inspection or hold bin until the COA has been reviewed and the material is approved.  You can use this example process with or without the Warehouse Insight WMS app.  This can be used to help co-ordinate scenarios where items can be flagged as QC Required, COA Required, directed to specific put-away bins for a QC Hold location, and then a Quality Inspection or COA created.  Quality Inspector provides the business logic and availability hold, while WMS executes the physical transactions.

This article will walk through one possible scenario that can be configured.

Example Workflow

The intended process for this article is:

Purchase Order → Receive Inventory

• COA not required / QC Not Required
  • Receive and put away normally.
  • Inventory is available for normal warehouse use.
• COA required / QC Required
  • Create a Quality Inspection Test for the receipt.
  • Route the inventory to a designated QC Hold / Inspection Bin.
  • Record or attach the COA and complete the required quality review.
  • Pass / Approved: Move the inventory from QC Hold to its normal storage bin.
  • Fail / Pending: Leave the inventory in QC Hold for further review, disposition, return, or other follow-up.

Quality Inspector’s inspection-bin functionality can automatically modify warehouse put-away lines so inventory associated with an inspection is directed to a configured inspection bin.

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/route-put-aways-to-inspection-bins-in-quality-inspector/

Configuration

1. Configure the COA Inspection

Create a Quality Inspection Template containing the information that must be reviewed for the COA.  The Quality Inspection Template defines what fields, questions, measurements should exist on the COA.  A COA then becomes a Quality Inspection Test document that is created automatically when the purchase order is received (or when product is moved into a QC Hold bin).

Configure the passing conditions so the inspection (Quality Inspection Test) receives the appropriate Pass or Fail grade.

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/understand-quality-inspection-templates-and-test-generation-rules/

2. Identify the Items Requiring COA Inspection

Create a Test Generation Rule that applies the COA inspection template only to the applicable items.

Rules can be configured for:

• Specific items
• Groups or categories of items
• Other supported source criteria

For purchase receiving, configure the generation rule so a Quality Inspection Test is created for the applicable receipt.

For a specific item, see:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-a-test-generation-rule-for-a-specific-item-in-quality-inspector/

For an Item Category, see:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-a-test-generation-rule-for-a-category-of-items-in-quality-inspector/

For a general explanation of how templates and Test Generation Rules work together, see:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/understand-quality-inspection-templates-and-test-generation-rules/

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-quality-inspections-for-receipts/

3. Configure the QC Hold / Inspection Bin

For each item that requires this process:

• Open the Item Card.
• Enable Put Away to Inspection Bin.
• Select Inspection Bins.
• Configure the appropriate:
  • Location
  • Source Zone, if required
  • Quality Inspection Zone
  • Quality Inspection Bin

The inspection-bin setup determines where inventory requiring inspection is placed during warehouse put-away.

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/route-put-aways-to-inspection-bins-in-quality-inspector/

Important: Inspection-bin routing requires a qualifying Quality Inspection Test for the item and tracking information being received.

4. Automatically Create the Inspection During Receiving

Configure the COA template’s Test Generation Rule so the inspection is created when the applicable warehouse receipt is processed.

The generated inspection can then be used by the inspection-bin routing functionality to direct the inventory to the QC Hold / Inspection Bin.

Alternatively, if the decision is made on the floor for how much quantities is moved, then you could alternately split the line on the put-away, redirect some manually to a QC-HOLD bin, and then configure the Test Generation Rule such that a Quality Inspection Test is created for that movement into the QC-HOLD bin.  Quality Inspector supports both consistent automated rules for routing items into QC-HOLD bins, or manual/shop-floor-decision-time approaches to using QC-HOLD bins.

Related articles:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-a-test-automatically-with-a-put-away-or-movement-into-a-bin-in-quality-inspector/

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/route-put-aways-to-inspection-bins-in-quality-inspector/

5. Review the COA

The quality inspector opens the generated Quality Inspection Test and:

• Reviews the COA.
• Records the required inspection values.
• Adds notes or supporting information as required.
• Completes the inspection with the appropriate Pass or Fail result.

If Warehouse Insight is being used, the Quality Inspector integration allows Quality Inspection Tests to be accessed and worked with from Warehouse Insight devices.

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/warehouse-insight-quality-inspector-integration/

6. Release Passed Inventory

Configure a Business Central workflow based on the Quality Inspection Test being finished.

Add a condition for the applicable passing grade and use the Quality Inspector inventory movement workflow functionality to create the movement from the QC Hold bin to the normal storage bin.

Depending on the warehouse configuration, Quality Inspector can work with inventory movement processes such as:

• Reclassification journals
• Warehouse reclassification journals
• Movement worksheets
• Transfer orders

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/move-product-automatically-from-one-bin-to-another-bin-in-quality-inspector/

Where appropriate, configure the workflow to create the required movement entries rather than immediately posting them. This allows warehouse personnel to physically move the inventory while keeping Business Central synchronized with the actual warehouse activity.

7. Leave Failed or Pending Inventory on Hold

No release movement is required for inventory that:

• Fails inspection.
• Has not yet been reviewed.
• Is waiting for additional documentation.
• Requires disposition or vendor follow-up.

The inventory remains in the QC Hold / Inspection Bin until the appropriate action is taken.

Additional workflows can optionally be configured for failed inspections, such as:

• Move the inventory to a separate quarantine bin.
• Begin a return or disposition process.
• Initiate a retest.
• Create the appropriate inventory movement or adjustment process.

For more information:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/move-product-automatically-from-one-bin-to-another-bin-in-quality-inspector/

What If the COA Was Already Approved Before Receipt?

The configuration above uses a straightforward warehouse process where COA-required inventory is initially placed into the QC Hold / Inspection Bin and is released after the Quality Inspection Test confirms approval.

If the COA is sometimes reviewed before the physical receipt and the requirement is to automatically bypass the QC Hold bin when an approved COA already exists, additional process design may be required.

The inspection-bin routing functionality is based on whether a qualifying Quality Inspection Test exists for the received inventory. It is not intended as a general-purpose rule that dynamically chooses the receiving bin based on a custom field such as COA Approved = Yes.

In this scenario, first determine:

• Where the COA approval is recorded.
• Whether the approval is associated with the purchase order, receipt, item, lot, or another record.
• Whether the approval is known before the warehouse put-away is created.

If the receipt or put-away destination must be selected dynamically based on an external or customer-specific COA approval status, a small Business Central extension may be required to connect that status to the warehouse routing process.

Related Certificate of Analysis (COA) Features

Quality Inspector also includes functionality for generating and distributing Certificates of Analysis after an inspection is complete. The Attach as PDF feature can generate a PDF using the Certificate of Analysis report directly from a Quality Inspection Test; this article is particularly useful because it includes screenshots showing the COA reporting process and report output:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/use-attach-as-pdf-to-automatically-create-a-pdf-of-a-certificate-of-analysis-and-other-quality-inspection-reports/

COA PDFs can also be created and attached automatically when a Quality Inspection Test is finished, allowing the completed certificate to become part of the inspection record without requiring the user to manually run the report:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-pdf-attachments-automatically-when-a-test-finishes/

Additional COA-related configuration, including the CoA Contact No. used on the sample Certificate of Analysis reports, is described in the Quality Inspector Setup page:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/iwxqisetup-page-al/

Quality Inspector also supports Signature fields on inspection templates, allowing an inspector or approver to provide a captured sign-off as part of the inspection record. For processes requiring more than one level of authorization, Business Central workflows can be used to require multiple approval steps before the Quality Inspection Test can be finished, providing additional control for COA review and release processes.

Related articles:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/use-basic-signatures-in-quality-inspector/

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/create-a-multi-step-approval-workflow-to-finish-a-quality-inspection-test/

For a broader overview of the available Quality Inspector reporting, attachment, inspection, and receiving features, see:

https://kb.dmsiworks.com/knowledge-base/quality-inspector/