Quality Management & Inspection Plans

The problem this solves

Quality is where regulated manufacturers and distributors most often fall out of NetSuite. The inspection itself lives on a form or a spreadsheet, the result lives in a shared folder, and the link back to the lot that was inspected exists only in someone's head or in a filename. When a customer asks for a certificate of analysis, someone assembles it manually. When an auditor asks to see the disposition trail for a rejected batch, the answer takes a week to compile.

The operational cost is just as real as the compliance cost. Material that has not been inspected gets picked because nothing stopped it. A supplier's quality trend is invisible because results were never structured data. A non-conformance is raised in email, dispositioned verbally, and closed without anyone recording the corrective action — so the same problem returns.

NetSuite already holds the receipt, the lot, the work order, the vendor and the customer. What is missing is the inspection record that connects them and the gate that stops uninspected material moving.

What ECOSIRE builds

We build a quality management layer inside your NetSuite account using SuiteScript 2.1, custom records and SuiteFlow. Inspections become NetSuite records tied to the transaction and the lot or serial they belong to, dispositions drive real inventory movements, and certificates of analysis are generated from the results already captured rather than typed again.

Inspection plans and characteristics

An inspection plan is a custom record defining what gets checked, by whom and against what limits. Each plan holds a set of characteristics — dimensional, visual, chemical, functional — with a type (numeric with lower and upper specification limits, pass or fail, or a value from a defined list), a unit of measure, a sampling rule, and whether the characteristic is critical. Plans are assigned by item, item class, custom segment, vendor, or a combination, so a plan can apply to a whole material family and be overridden for a specific supplier.

Sampling supports fixed quantity, percentage of the received or produced quantity, and a sampling table keyed to lot size, so you are not inspecting a hundred percent of everything by default.

Triggering at receipt, build and fulfillment

User Event scripts create inspection records automatically at the points where quality is decided:

On item receipt. An incoming inspection is generated per receipt line and per lot, and the received quantity is routed to a quarantine or inspection bin or location rather than to available stock. Until the inspection is dispositioned, the material is not picked.

On work order completion. An in-process or final inspection is generated for the produced lot or serial. Where you inspect at an operation rather than at completion, the trigger can be set on the operation instead.

On fulfillment. A pre-shipment inspection can be required before an item fulfillment is approved, which is the control point that stops out-of-spec goods leaving the building.

Which triggers are active is configuration, not code — you can run incoming inspection only, or all three.

Recording results and dispositioning

Inspectors record results in a Suitelet form built for the job: the characteristic list from the plan, entry fields typed to the characteristic, automatic in-spec or out-of-spec evaluation against the limits, file attachment for photographs or supplier certificates, and the inspector and timestamp captured automatically. Numeric results are stored as numbers, not text, which is what makes trend reporting possible later.

Disposition drives inventory. An accept moves the quantity from quarantine to available stock through an inventory transfer or adjustment. A reject moves it to a scrap or hold location and can raise a vendor return. A use-as-is or rework disposition requires an approval step through SuiteFlow, with the approver, the reason and the timestamp recorded. Partial dispositions are supported, so a lot can be split between accepted and rejected quantities with each part tracked.

Non-conformance and corrective action

A failed inspection — or an independently raised issue from production, a customer complaint or an internal audit — creates a non-conformance record. It captures the source, the item, lot or serial, quantity affected, defect category from a custom list, severity, and links to the originating transaction. SuiteFlow routes it for investigation, containment, root cause and corrective action, with due dates, assigned owners and email notification on assignment and overdue. Effectiveness of the corrective action is verified and recorded before the record closes, so a closed non-conformance actually means something.

Related records stay linked: the non-conformance, the inspection, the receipt or work order, the vendor return, and any customer complaint sit together on one record you can open and follow.

Certificates of analysis

A certificate of analysis is generated as a PDF from the inspection results already captured for a lot, using your template and branding, listing characteristics, specification limits, actual results, the inspector and the approval. It can be produced on demand from the lot record, attached automatically to an item fulfillment, or emailed to the customer as part of the shipping process. Because it is generated from the stored results, it cannot drift from the underlying data.

Reporting and audit

Saved searches ship for first-pass yield by item and work centre, supplier quality performance by vendor and defect category, open non-conformances by age and owner, inspection backlog, and out-of-specification trend by characteristic. Every inspection, disposition and non-conformance record carries the user and timestamp, and edits to dispositioned results are audited — which is the evidence trail an auditor is actually asking for.

Who this is for

Manufacturers and distributors operating under a quality system — food and beverage, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical, medical device, aerospace and defence, chemicals, or anyone shipping under a customer quality agreement. If you issue certificates of analysis, hold incoming material pending inspection, or have to demonstrate a disposition and corrective action trail to an auditor, this is the layer NetSuite does not provide out of the box.

It is less relevant if quality checks are informal and no external party ever asks for the record.

How delivery works

Built to order, for your account, after a fixed quote.

1. Scoping call. We review your inspection points, characteristic types and specification limits, sampling rules, disposition paths, quarantine location strategy, non-conformance workflow, certificate of analysis template and any regulatory requirement that shapes the record structure.

2. Fixed quote and specification. You receive a written functional specification listing every custom record, field, list, script, workflow, saved search and PDF template we will deliver, with a fixed price and a delivery date. Nothing is built until you approve it.

3. Build. We develop as an SDF project against your sandbox, using your real items, lots, vendors and transaction flow.

4. Install in your sandbox. We deploy to your sandbox as an unmanaged bundle or SDF deployment and run your own scenarios through it end to end — a receipt through inspection to available stock, a failure through non-conformance to corrective action closure, and a certificate of analysis produced from a real lot.

5. Production deployment. After sign-off we deploy to production, configure triggers, roles, workflows and the certificate template, and hand over the source. You own the SDF project.

6. Support window. A defect-fix support window follows go-live, with the length agreed in the quote, and ongoing support is available separately.

Typical lead time from approved quote to production is two to four weeks, depending on how many inspection points, characteristic types and workflow paths are in scope. We build the system that records and enforces your quality process; validating that process against your regulatory obligations remains your responsibility, and we will supply the documentation your validation needs.