Creating and managing automation rules if your ERP system is SAP Business One

Automation rules allow you to create inspection orders automatically in case events occur, for example, when new goods reach the warehouse or a production run is completed. The automatic generation of inspection orders is triggered when a new document corresponding to such an event is detected in SAP Business One and that document meets the conditions specified in an active automation rule. SAP Business One documents monitored for this functionality include goods receipts, A/P invoices, production orders and production receipts.

To display the list of available automation rules, select the Automation menu entry on the left of the Inspect / Manager screen. Select the Goods receipt tab (displayed by default) to view the rules that can trigger the creation of inspection orders when a new goods receipt or A/P invoice arrives in SAP Business One. Click the In production tab to list the rules that are applied when a newly released (approved) production order meets the conditions specified. Select the Production receipt tab to display the rules that are based on the detection of a new production receipt in SAP Business One.

Creating automation rules

Select the tab of the type of automation you need and click Add rule in the top right corner of the list to create a new row in the table and enter a descriptive name for your new rule.

The new rule will be displayed on the top of the list of automation rules. You will need to select it to edit its details (see below).

Managing automation rules

Click the options (°°°) icon on the right side of the list to edit the details of the given rule or to delete it. You can also select the name of an automation rule in the list to specify / edit its details.

The screenshots below show the detail view of each of the three automation rule types.

• Goods receipt automation

• In production automation

• Production receipt automation

Automation rule details - All automation types

The following details can be entered / edited, irrespective of the type of automation.

• Rule activation

Your automation is effective only if you have ticked the Active checkbox in the top right corner of the tab.

An automation rule can be marked as Active only if you have selected an inspection plan and specified at least one condition.

• Name

You can change the name of the automation rule.

• Inspection plan

Select the inspection plan you want to base your automatically created inspection orders on from the drop-down list.

• Sampling plan

Select the way you want to calculate the number of samples in your automatically created inspection orders from the drop-down list.

• Conditions

Use AND and/or OR operators to specify the conditions that a newly detected document in SAP Business One needs to meet in order to invoke your automation rule. Clicking on the + sign allows you to add a new condition or a new group of conditions connected by an AND or an OR operator. A condition can refer to an item / product, an item / product group, an item / product property, a supplier / customer, or (for In production inspection) an operation. Each of these elements can be associated with (required to be equal to or not equal to) a value to be selected from a drop-down list. For example, if you want goods receipt automation rule to take effect if the SAP Business One document is from the supplier Lumarx and on item Printer Label, then use the following formula:

• Finalize automatically

Tick the Finalize automatically checkbox to close the order if it has passed.

Additional automation rule details - Goods receipt and Production receipt automation

In the case of Goods receipt and Production receipt automation rules, the following additional options are available:

• Order generation and release

For an item managed by batches in SAP Business One, select the corresponding radio button to generate one inspection order for each line in the SAP Business One document (i.e. goods receipt, A/P invoice or production receipt), or to have an order for each batch covered by the document.

Similarly, for an item managed by serial numbers in SAP Business One, select the corresponding radio button to generate one inspection order for each line in the SAP Business One document, or to have an order for each serial number covered by the document.

The default setting is Create one order per document line for both batch and serial number managed items.

Selecting Create one order per serial number may potentially result in a great number of inspection orders.

Newly created orders are added directly to the operator’s list in Inspect / Operator, unless you uncheck the Release automatically checkbox (which is checked by default).

In production inspection orders can only be released manually by the inspection manager.

• Batch release

Tick the Batch release checkbox to release the batch automatically in SAP Business One if the order has passed and is finalized.

Handling conflicting automation rules

If multiple active rules match a document, only one of them will be used to create an inspection order. The winner is either the most specific matching rule, or – if two rules have identical conditions – the one that is positioned higher in the list of rules. Reordering may help you get the desired outcome. Click the (drag) icon to drag and drop the given rule to a different position.