Business context

In-process quality inspections are checks or evaluations performed at various stages during the manufacturing or assembly process, rather than waiting until final inspection. These inspections typically occur on the shop floor—the area where actual production takes place.

SAP Digital Manufacturing (SAP DM) is a cloud-based solution that enables real-time visibility, control, and optimization of manufacturing processes. Its integration with SAP S/4HANA Quality Management (QM) brings together manufacturing execution and enterprise quality data, streamlining quality assurance across the production lifecycle. Through this integration, quality inspection results and defect records captured on the shop floor in SAP DM can be synchronized directly with S/4HANA QM. This ensures data consistency, faster feedback loops, and informed decision-making, helping organizations achieve higher product quality, improved compliance, and more efficient manufacturing execution.

For recording inspection results in SAP DM integrated with S/4HANA inspection lots, you can use the Production Operator Dashboard (POD) in SAP DM.  With Release 2605 SAP DM delivers a new framework for the definition and configuration of the PODs, called POD 2.0. In this context, there is also a redesigned Plugin for inspection results recording available, which significantly enhances usability and offers new features.

This blog focuses on quality inspections in SAP DM integrated with S/4HANA QM inspection lots. It does not cover data collections with SAP DM, nonconformance logging, or AI-assisted visual inspections.

Prerequisites

You must be using SAP ERP or an S/4HANA edition (private or public) to maintain QM master data and enable the corresponding integration scenarios with SAP DM. For details, please see these SAP Help Portal pages and related links in the diagram. 
For S/4HANA and SAP ERP:  https://help.sap.com/docs/sap-digital-manufacturing/integration-guide/overview-integration-with-sap-…
For S/4HANA Public Cloud: Overview Integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for Discrete Industries | SAP Help Portal 
Prebuilt connectors and APIs enable standard, real-time data exchange between SAP DM and S/4HANA.

S/4HANA is the leading system for quality planning; SAP DM is used for execution of quality inspections as in-process controls during production or process order execution. Once the production or process order is released in S/4HANA, an in-process inspection lot (inspection type 03) is generated automatically, and the order along with the relevant inspection operations and inspection characteristics are downloaded to SAP DM.

Master data and configuration in S/4HANA

• Ensure inspection type 03 is active for the relevant material master records in S/4HANA.
• Assign inspection characteristics to routing operations or recipe phases/operations as appropriate.
• Optional: enable inspection points in the routing/recipe header QM data when multiple inspections of the same parameter are required.

Configuration in SAP Digital Manufacturing

After you set up the integration scenarios, most configuration is complete. If you use inspection points within S/4HANA QM inspection lots, make sure you mirror the inspection-point identification settings from S/4HANA in your SAP DM configuration table per plant (SAP DM app: “Configure Inspection Points”).

Limitations for inspection-point integration with SAP DM:

• Only the “free inspection point” type is supported for integration with SAP DM at this time
• Inspection points are currently supported only for integration with S/4HANA Private Cloud and SAP ERP

Setting up the QM POD Plugin in POD 2.0

In order to use the redesigned POD Plugin for inspection results recording, you must do the following (as of SAP DM Release 2605):

In the “Manage POD 2.0” app:

1. Select a POD template.
2. Create a new page (for example, name it “Quality Inspection”).
3. Drag and drop the QM POD Plugin “Quality Inspection Characteristic Table” into the new page.
4. Save the POD.

(Figure 1: Quality Inspection POD PlugIn in Manage POD 2.0 App)

For general information about POD 2.0 features and configuration options, review the POD 2.0 blog post series in the SAP Community
https://community.sap.com/t5/supply-chain-management-blog-posts-by-sap/new-pod-2-0-framework-the-new…

Recording inspection results with SAP DM POD 2.0

A practical process flow example for order execution with in-process checks may look like this:

1. A production order with an inspection lot is created and released in S/4HANA.
2. SAP DM receives the order; the Production Supervisor releases the order in SAP DM and the operator follows digital instructions and completes in-process checks in the POD.
3. Inspection results are recorded in the POD in SAP DM for one or more operations / work centers.
4. Optionally, exceptions or nonconformances can be communicated back to S/4HANA QM – for example, by logging nonconformances in SAP DM, which can trigger the creation of a production defect in S/4HANA.
5. S/4HANA uses the input from the shop floor to update the quality status of materials, make a usage decision based on the entered inspection results, and maintain compliance records.

Enhanced usability for inspection results recording

To reduce the number of clicks for operators and quality technicians on the shop floor, the UI of the POD Plugin for inspection results recording has been redesigned and optimized. In now provides faster data entry and full visibility into the status of inspection operations.
New or improved features include:

• An overview of all inspection results on one screen (including qualitative inspection characteristics) via the “View Summary” button.
• A “Save and Next” button that allows users to jump directly to the next inspection characteristic with one click.
• A separate side panel that lists all inspection characteristics for easier navigation and scrolling.

(Figure 2: New user interface for inspection results recording in POD)

 
New features for QM inspection results recording

Inspection results can be entered manually by the operator or quality technician, or automatically via the Production Connector and an associated Production Process that collects data from an electronic measurement device. Some new features have been added to the QM POD 2.0 Plugin:

1. You can enter an inspection description (comment) on header level and single results level for each individual inspection characteristic
2. Depending on the inspection characteristic configuration in S/4HANA QM, the system can enforce mandatory comments (i.e., inspection description/documentation required resp. required if result is rejected). 

(Figure 3: Mandatory comments can be entered at inspection characteristic header level)

Other functional improvements available across POD frameworks (available in POD 1.0 and POD 2.0):

• When results are transferred back to the inspection lot in S/4HANA, the operator/inspector name is mapped to the “Inspector” field (previously it was only the eight-digit username).
• The “Changed date & time” field reflects the date and time when the inspection characteristic result was completed, not when it was initially transferred from SAP DM.

The existing XSLT mapping provides extensibility—for example, to automatically complete inspection results (status “5”) when sending data from SAP DM to S/4HANA. For details, see the SAP Help Portal: Enabling Auto Valuation and Completion of Inspection Characteristics | SAP Help Portal

Conclusion

In-process quality inspections let manufacturers detect and address issues early during production, improving product quality, lowering costs, and ensuring regulatory compliance.
SAP Digital Manufacturing modernizes in-process inspection execution and, when integrated with S/4HANA QM, delivers a seamless and auditable flow from production order creation to inspection and product release decisions. The POD 2.0 QM Plugin improves operator usability and tightens the integration between shop-floor execution and enterprise quality management in S/4HANA.

Limitations

When using the SAP Digital Manufacturing integration with Cloud ERP, please consider the following known limitations:

• Only inspection lots of type 03 are supported in SAP DM.
• Only 100% inspection is supported; flexible sampling sizes are not supported.
• Only single result values for inspection characteristics are supported (no summarized results support).
• Inspection lots using inspection points are supported only for integration with S/4HANA Private Cloud, on-premise, and SAP ERP (ECC).

For further details, see SAP Note 3379404 – SAP Digital Manufacturing: Restrictions and Limitations Note – SAP for Me

References