1. Using Quality Management
  2. Workflow Status

Workflow Status

This topic describes how workflows ensure a standard and repeatable process for managing quality issues and quality actions.

A workflow is a sequence of steps that a quality issue or quality action follows as it goes through a business process. Quality teams and interested parties can track the progress of a quality event through its workflow status.

You can't edit the quality event when it's in a read-only state like Approval or Closed. When the Approval status of a workflow is rejected, the workflow infotile displays the following message, 'Rejected by' <user name>.

Predefined Statuses

The workflow of a quality issue is based on how it's used. A quality issue workflow can be any of the following default workflows or one that your administrator creates. These are the pre-defined statuses through which a workflow progresses.

  • Issue expedite workflow - Draft, Open, Closed.

  • Issue workflow with review - Draft, Open, In Process, Closed.

  • Issue workflow with approval - Draft, Open, In Process, Approval, Closed.

  • Issue resolution - Draft, Open, Review, Containment, In Process, Remove Containment, Closed.

  • Issue exception - Draft, Open, Closed.

  • Issue workflow with preapproval and approval - Draft, Open, Initial Approval, Issue Resolution, Final Approval, Closed.

The figure shows the workflow statuses of the default quality issue workflows, based on usage.

Quality Issues Workflows

The workflow of a quality action is also based on how it's used. A quality action workflow can be any of the following ready-to-use workflows or additional ones that you define. These are the predefined statuses through which a workflow progresses.

  • Action expedite workflow - Draft, Open, Closed.

  • Action workflow with review - Draft, Open, In Process, Closed.

  • Action workflow with approval - Draft, Open, In Process, Approval, Closed.

  • CAPA workflow - Draft, Open, In Process, Root Cause, Solution Design, Solution Plan, Validate, Closed.

  • Action workflow with preapproval and approval - Draft, Open, Initial Approval, Action Resolution, Final Approval, Closed.

  • 8D workflow - Draft, D0: Plan, D1: Form Team, D2: Define Problem, D3: Interim Containment, D4: Determine Root Cause, D5: Verify Connections, D6: Implement Corrective Actions, D7: Preventive Recurrence, D8: Congratulate Team, Closed.

The figure shows the workflow statuses of the default quality action workflows, based on usage.

Quality Actions Workflow

Workflow tasks are withdrawn automatically if they're not used in 180 days or more. Once this happens, you can no longer modify the quality issue or action.

This threshold is set in the Open Tasks Withdrawn after Number of Days field on the Application Preferences page in the following location: BPM Worklist > Administration > Application Preferences. You can change this only by modifying the expiration settings in the Deadlines subtab within the Task Configuration tab for the workflow task. The task level expiration setting takes precedence over the automatic withdrawal setting of 180 days.

Advanced Search to Add Users to Quality Object Workflows

Use the Advanced Search to search for and assign approvers to workflows of quality issues and actions. Search operators such as Starts With, Ends With, Equals, and Contains support the feature while allowing additional search fields such as Email or Name, within the search, for selecting approvers. This provides flexibility and an additional means to search for and find the required approvers for a quality issue or action approval. The approvers and security search results lists for quality issues and actions display not only the name but the user name and email.