Collection Elements in Oracle Quality

Collection elements are on Dave’s mind as he takes notes from Becky Klein. Becky is the
tool room specialist at Office Smart’s Naperville plant. Dave Cromwell is the Quality Lead at
OSS. He is interested in listing the parameters and dimensions that are used at the
Naperville plant. Becky knows all about that.

The Case of the Linear Hub

Dave and Becky are discussing the Linear Hub. This item has three main parameters that
come under inspection.

 Hub Height
 Hub Diameter
 Hub Finish

Height and Diameter have numerical

values. Finish is measured in grades.

Dave sets up the first Set of Collection Elements

Dave sets up Height as shown below.
Whatever Dave enters in the Prompt field will appear in the column heading for the given
element when quality results are entered. As we see above, the moment we enter the
element name and tab out of the field, the same value defaults in the Prompt field. This
value can be overwritten.

Dave wants the user to be aware that the data to be entered in the Hub Height column
during quality results entry has to be entered in inches. Dave enters an appropriate
message in the Hint field. The user will see this message at the bottom of the screen during
quality data collection.

Also, because Hub Height is a Variable type element, Dave sets the Data Type to be
Numeric.

Dave sets up Hub Diameter in much the same way. But for the element – Hub Finish, Dave
has to enter a set of non-numeric values. This is because Hub Finish is an Attribute type
element. The values he enters carry descriptions as shown below.
Dave would create elements for quality data collection for other items at OSS in a similar
manner in consultation with Becky.

Specifications for OSS Items

Specifications (also referred to as a spec) help define the acceptable range of values within
which an item under inspection will pass the test. Office Smart Solutions (OSS) will need to
define a separate spec for each item. Their business process so demands. However,
depending on the business need one spec can be applied to more than one item.

Here, Dave creates a Spec for the Linear Hub defined as item number LH101. If specs are
item-specific then it is a good practice to carry the item code or number in
the Specification Name.

Specs are of three types:

 Item Spec
 Supplier Spec
 Customer Spec

Here, Dave creates an Item Spec for LH101.

However, as the name suggests, a Supplier Spec defines acceptable range of values for
collection elements relating to an item coming from a specific supplier. If Dave were to
define a Supplier Spec for LH101, then he would have had to enter the Supplier code in the
screen below.

Similarly, a Customer Spec defines acceptable range of values for collection elements
relating to an item going to a specific customer. If Dave were to define a Customer Spec for
LH101, then he would have had to enter the Customer code in the screen below.

So, what's Acceptable?

Dave defines the values given to him by Becky. For the Linear Hub LH101, the acceptable
range or the Spec Limits are as follows.
Dave saves his work. The Spec is created in Draft status. In that status, a spec will not be
available for use with a collection plan.

The spec can be routed through the e-signature approval process. However, if the e-
signature setup is non-existent then the spec status changes to No Approval Required.

The spec is now available for use.

A Purchasing Collection Plan for Office

Smart Solutions
A Collection Plan (also refereed to as a quality collection plan or simply a collection plan)
brings together the Collection Elements and a Specification and ties them to create the data
object that drives quality inspections.

Quality Plans in Oracle Quality tells you

 what data to collect during the quality inspection

 at what stage of the process this data needs to be collected
 what actions to take based on the quality data collected

There are many types of quality plans. These are listed in detail in the Quality User Guide.
The data structure remains the same for all the different quality plan types available in
Oracle Quality. Here, we shall see one of the most widely used quality plans being created –
the Receiving Inspection Plan.

Dave prefers Collection Plan Templates

Oracle Quality comes with a number of seeded collection plan templates that can be used to
create user-defined collection plans. Dave decides to use these templates so as not to have
to create plans from scratch.

There is another factor that weighs in favor of using the seeded collection plan templates.
Let us consider the example of the Receiving Inspection plan. Oracle Quality mandates that
Receiving Inspection plans must include the following collection elements:

 Inspection Result
 Quantity
 UOM Name
 Transaction Date

Also, these collection plan elements must be defined as Displayed, Mandatory and Enabled.

Dave knows that copying from a template ensures that all of these points are complied with
while creating a plan from scratch carries the risk of something getting overlooked. Hence
the templates approach.

First things First, Dave creates a Reference Collection Plan

Dave intends to use the Copy Collection Plans feature in Oracle Quality to create a user-
defined plan that would serve as the master copy. He seeks out the template for the
Purchasing Inspection plan and finds it.

Now, quality plans are organization-specific. So, Dave has to specify which organization the
template should be copied to. This will be OSN – Office Smart Naperville, the organization
Dave’s team had defined earlier here. This is shown below.

Having determined the destination organization, Dave has to decide the name of the quality
plan that would be created as a copy of the template.
Dave chooses to follow a naming convention that has served him well in past
implementations. The plan that is an immediate copy of the template will have underscores
(_) in its name. This will differentiate it from other quality plans that will be derived from
this one.

Dave names his plan as OSN_PO_INSPECTION_PLAN as shown above. The prefix denotes
the inventory organization to which the plan belongs.

The Copied Collection Plan needs Fine Tuning

Dave queries for OSN_PO_INSPECTION_PLAN in the Collection Plans form to verify that it
was indeed created. He finds it is there! Dave looks at the collection elements in the plan
that came with the seeded template. He feels he needs to add more collection elements
keeping in mind the Receiving Inspection process.
Dave adds the following collection elements to the plan:

 Supplier
 PO Number
 PO Receipt Number
 Inspector
 Entered by User

These are a few of the collection elements that come pre-defined with Oracle Quality.

What Next?

Here’s what Dave is thinking. Dave knows that OSS would

need a separate collection plan for each item in the OSN org.
He therefore plans to make OSN_PO_INSPECTION_PLAN the
Reference Plan or a Master Copy which would then be copied
into individual item-specific plans.

However, some of the most important tasks that help define a

collection plan are yet to be done. The individual collection
plans will need to be assigned to the correct transaction.
Triggers will need to be defined, Action Rules associated with
specific collection elements and Specifications assigned to
collection plans.

That is what Dave sets out to do in the next section.

A Receiving Inspection Plan for an Item

Dave Cromwell the Quality Lead at Office Smart Solutions (OSS) is about to create the first
Receiving Inspection Plan for Office Smart Solutions (OSS). In the previous section, he had
created a master copy or reference collection plan from the Template Receiving Inspection
Plan. He would now use this reference or master plan.

Creating an Item Specific Plan from the Master Plan

Dave copies the Master Plan into a new plan that he prefers to call – PO INSPECTION LH101
VER 01. Dave believes that if every item is going to have its own receiving inspection plan
then it makes sense to include the item number in the collection plan name. Also, by his
experience Dave knows that clients almost always ask the same question – Can a collection
plan have versions? The answer is – No. But, a simple workaround is to include the version
number in the plan name.
Collection Elements Specific to PO INSPECTION LH101 VER
01
The item LH101 has three collection elements that need to be inspected and – three
parameters that must be measured and compared to the specification when the parts are
received. These are:

 Hub Height
 Hub Diameter
 Hub Finish

Dave had defined these collection elements in an earlier section. Dave adds these collection
elements into the Inspection Plan for LH101.

When adding collection elements into a collection plan, the Seq field determines in what
order the collection element columns will appear in the Quality Results entry screen.
Because, these 3 collection elements will be measured in succession, Dave ensures that
they have consecutive sequence numbers of 31, 32, and 33.

When to Invoke the Collection Plan?

Oracle Quality needs to be told at what stage a collection plan should be called into action.
There are two features embedded in the collection plan that help fix this “point-in-time”
coordinate.

The first of these is the Quality Collection Transaction. Quality data can be collected
during specific transactions in

 Flow Manufacturing
 Purchasing
 TeleService
 Work in Process
 Enterprise Asset Management
 Advanced Service Online
 Mobile Supply Chain Applications
 Warehouse Management System
 Shop Floor Management
 Oracle Process Manufacturing and
 iSupplier Portal

Dave wants the system to recognize that the collection plan he is working on needs to be
invoked during the receiving transaction. So from the list of seeded transactions he selects
the one he needs, as shown below

Having selected the transaction,

he must ensure that
the Enabled checkbox is checked.
If this is overlooked, then the
collection plan will not be
triggered during the receiving
transaction.

Also, collection plans such as this

one, which are linked to receiving
inspection are marked
as Mandatory by Oracle Quality.
For Receiving Inspection Plans,
the Mandatory checkbox cannot
be unchecked.

The second and more specific way of pointing out as to when the collection plan will be
triggered is to use the very same thing – triggers!

The triggers that you can use with Oracle Quality come seeded or pre-defined. Dave wants
this collection plan to be called every time the item LH101 is received. So, he defines the
trigger as shown below.

An Important Point:Associating a Transaction Type to a collection plan is mandatory if you

want to invoke the collection plan during a specific transactional flow or business process.
But triggers are optional.
Quality data can also be entered into a collection plan in direct data entry mode. If a
collection plan is created for direct data entry, then it need not be associated with any of
the available transaction types.

Linking a Specification to the Receiving Inspection Plan

Dave has defined a specification for the item LH101 in an earlier section. He now specifies
that the system look for this specification when the PO INSPECTION LH101 VER 01
collection plan is to be used.

Assigning Actions to Collection Elements

Dave knows that in Receiving Inspection plans the pivotal collection element is the one
called - Inspection Result. This is a seeded collection element that has two pre-defined
values – Accept and Reject. Each of these values goes into a Rule. And to each of
these Rules there is an Action assigned.

The first Inspection Result value is:

The Action assigned to this Rule is:

The second Inspection Result value is:

The Action assigned to this Rule is
The seeded Actions of Accept the shipment and Reject the shipment are used by the
system to ensure that the items being received (in Purchasing) are marked
as Accepted or Rejected, once the inspection is completed. This demonstrates the tight
integration that Oracle Quality has with Oracle Purchasing.

Dave uses this feature to create a rule wherein if the Hub Height measurement lies outside
of the Specification Limits then the Inspection Result would flip to Reject.

Dave applies the same rule to Hub Diameter.

So, the four possible combinations would be as follows:

Hub Height Hub Diameter

Inspection Result Status
Measurement Measurement
Outside of Spec Limits Within Spec Limits Reject
Within Spec Limits Outside of Spec Limits Reject
Outside of Spec Limits Outside of Spec Limits Reject
The user will have to manually set the
Within Spec Limits Within Spec Limits
status to Accept

For the collection element Hub Finish, the values Dave had defined here, need to be
imported into the collection plan PO INSPECTION LH101 VER 01. To do this, Dave positions
the cursor on the Hub Finish collection element and clicks on the Values button. He gets
the following message.
Dave clicks on the Copy button. The values he had defined earlier for this collection
element are imported into the collection element.

The benefit of doing this for an Attribute type collection element is that when the user
comes to this collection element column in the Quality Results Entry screen, he will find a
list of values there. He need not type in the pre-defined values.

Now, Dave is ready to present this collection plan to the Purchasing Inspection people.