Using the Quality Inspector Failure Analysis Page

Overview

The Quality Inspector Failure Analysis page is a root-cause analysis (RCA) tool that helps identify recurring quality problems and determine which issues deserve immediate attention.

The page analyzes Quality Inspector tests whose grade belongs to a grade with Grade Category = Not Acceptable, groups failures by selected dimensions, and ranks the results by occurrence. By automatically aggregating failure data, it helps you identify the highest-impact contributors so you can focus corrective actions where they will have the greatest effect.

Use this page to answer questions such as:

• Which vendors, items, work centers, operations, BOMs, components, attributes, measurements, days, or shifts are most frequently associated with failed inspections?
• Which quality problems are increasing or occurring recently?
• Which issues contribute to the majority of failures?
• Which specific tests make up a summarized failure pattern?

A single failed test can contribute to multiple analysis categories. For example, one failed inspection might appear in Vendor, Item, Measurement, Day Details, and BOM Component results simultaneously.

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How to Run an Analysis

1. Open Quality Inspector Failure Analysis.
2. In the Scope of Tests to Analyze section, define which tests should be included.
3. In the What to Analyze section, leave all options selected for a broad root-cause scan, or select only the dimensions relevant to your investigation.
4. Set Failure Threshold to define the minimum number of occurrences required before a pattern appears in the results.
5. Choose Analyze.
6. Review the results, beginning with the highest Failure Count and the rows marked as top Pareto contributors.
7. Select a result and choose Show Details, or drill down on Failure Count, to view the individual tests behind the summarized pattern.
8. Use Open Related Record to navigate directly to the associated vendor, item, work center, BOM, field, or other related record when available.

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Scope of Tests to Analyze

Template Code

Limits the analysis to tests created from a specific Quality Inspector template.

Use this to focus on a particular product line, inspection process, or quality procedure. Leave the field blank to analyze all templates.

Only Finished

When enabled, only tests with a status of Finished are included.

This option is enabled by default so that the analysis is based on finalized inspection results. Clear it only when intentionally including in-progress tests.

Test Filter

Applies additional filters to the underlying Quality Inspector tests.

Use this to narrow the analysis by date, lot number, serial number, source item, package number, status, or other available test fields.

Failure Threshold

Specifies the minimum number of occurrences required before a summarized pattern appears in the results.

The default value is 2.

Increasing this value hides one-off failures and allows you to focus on recurring issues. For example, setting the threshold to 5 can help expose persistent quality problems while filtering out occasional noise.

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What to Analyze

All analysis options are selected by default.

Analyze BOM

Examines the production BOM and its components associated with failed tests.

This analysis can reveal:

• Whether failures are concentrated around a particular BOM.
• Whether specific components commonly appear in failed products.

The page creates both BOM and BOM Component categories from this option.

Analyze Vendor

Associates failures with vendors.

This helps determine whether quality problems are concentrated around a particular supplier and is useful for vendor scorecards and supplier performance analysis.

Analyze Work Center

Associates failures with production routing work centers, machine centers, and operation numbers.

This can help identify:

• Machines requiring maintenance.
• Routing operations associated with defects.
• Areas where additional operator training may be needed.

The page creates both Work Center and Operation categories from this option.

Analyze Item

Groups failures by source item and variant.

This can reveal whether certain products or variants are inherently more prone to quality problems.

Analyze Item Attributes

Groups failures by item attributes such as color, material, or size.

This helps identify quality issues that affect a shared characteristic rather than a single item number.

Analyze Measure

Analyzes test lines that failed due to AQL or acceptance criteria.

Results are grouped by the failed test line description.

This helps determine which measurement or inspection requirement is failing most often, such as:

• Weight
• Length
• Temperature
• pH
• Visual inspection criteria

Detail records include the field code and recorded test value.

Analyze Date

Groups failures by day and shift.

When available, the work center shop calendar shift is used. Otherwise, the system categorizes failures into Morning, Afternoon, Evening, or Unknown.

This analysis helps reveal:

• Day-of-week patterns.
• Shift-related quality issues.
• Time-based spikes in defects.

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Categories That Can Be Analyzed

Failed tests can contribute to the following categories:

• Vendor
• Work Center
• Operation
• BOM
• BOM Component
• Item
• Attribute
• Measurement
• Day Details

Because one failed test may contribute to several categories, the same issue may appear from multiple perspectives.

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How Dates Are Determined

The page uses a significant date for calculating:

• First Occurrence
• Last Occurrence
• Days Since Last
• Day and shift analysis

The significant date is chosen in the following order:

1. Finished Date
2. Modified Date
3. Created Date

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Understanding the Results

Analysis

Provides a human-readable description of the identified pattern.

Examples include:

• A vendor name.
• An item and variant.
• A BOM component.
• A work center.
• A failed measurement.
• A day and shift combination.

Category

Indicates the type of pattern represented by the row.

Examples include Vendor, Item, Measurement, Work Center, BOM Component, and Day Details.

% of Total Failures

Shows the relative frequency of the pattern compared to the failed tests included in the analysis.

Higher percentages indicate more significant and potentially systemic issues.

This is the % of the failures as it exists in the analyzed rows, not % of total failures for any given test document.

Pareto

Applies the 80/20 principle to highlight the most important contributors.

Rows identified as Pareto contributors represent the “vital few” issues that account for most failures. Addressing these problems first typically provides the greatest improvement.

Failure Count

Shows the total number of occurrences associated with the pattern.

Results are automatically sorted by this value in descending order.

You can drill down on this field to view the detailed tests behind the summarized result.

First Occurrence

Shows when the problem first appeared.

This helps determine whether an issue has existed for a long period or is relatively new.

Last Occurrence

Shows when the issue most recently occurred.

This helps determine whether the problem is historical or still active.

Days Since Last

Calculates the number of days between the Business Central work date and the last occurrence.

Low values indicate active or recently recurring issues, while high values may indicate historical problems that have already subsided.

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Actions

Analyze

Runs the analysis using the current filters and selected dimensions.

Open Related Record

Opens the related record associated with the selected analysis result.

Depending on the category, this may open:

• Vendor cards
• Item cards
• Work centers
• Machine centers
• Production BOMs
• Production routing lines
• Quality fields
• Tests

Show Details

Opens the Analysis Details page.

Drilling down on Failure Count performs the same action.

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Analysis Details

The Analysis Details page lists the individual tests that contributed to the selected result.

This allows you to verify why a pattern appeared and investigate the source records.

Available information includes:

• Test number
• Retest number
• Source item and variant
• Lot number
• Serial number
• Package number
• Vendor number
• Item attributes
• Field codes and recorded values
• Day and shift details
• BOM components

Available actions include:

• Show Test
• Attachments
• Open Source Document
• Vendor
• Item
• Lot No. Information
• Serial No. Information
• Package No. Information
• Find Entries

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Interpreting the Results

Begin with the rows that have the highest Failure Count and are marked as Pareto contributors.

Compare Last Occurrence and Days Since Last to determine whether an issue is active or historical.

Use Category to separate supplier-related, manufacturing-related, product-related, measurement-related, and time-based problems.

Use Show Details to verify the individual tests behind a summarized result before taking corrective action.

If the analysis is too broad, narrow the scope using Template Code or Test Filter. If too many low-frequency issues appear, increase the Failure Threshold and run the analysis again.

The Failure Analysis page is intended to help prioritize root-cause investigations and corrective actions by highlighting the problems that have the greatest impact on overall quality.