Put work on quality hold

A quality hold stops suspect material from being used, moved, or shipped while you investigate a problem. Placing a hold is a containment action: Bulk creates a tracked hold record in the Quality module, marks a quantity of material as held, and gives that material a physical hold tag so nobody on the floor uses it by mistake. Use a hold whenever you find, or suspect, a non-conformance (a part or batch that does not meet its specification) and you need to freeze the affected material before it moves to the next operation, reaches dispatch, or ships to a customer.

You place a hold with the New Quality Hold wizard, a three-step form that walks you through identifying the problem, recording how the material is contained, and deciding what should happen to it next.

Before you start

You need permission to create quality holds. This is granted by the Super user, Entity admin, and Quality roles. If your role does not include it, you can still open the wizard, but submitting the hold will fail with a permission error; ask an administrator to give you a role that includes hold creation.

Nothing else has to be set up first. You do not need an existing quality issue or NCR (non-conformance report) to place a hold, though you can link a hold to one later from the hold's detail page.

Open the New Quality Hold wizard

1. Open the Quality module and go to Holds. The Quality Holds list appears, titled Quality Holds with the subtitle "Prevent use or shipment of suspect material".
2. Select New Hold at the top right. (When the list is empty, the same Create Hold action appears in the middle of the page.)

The wizard opens at the New Quality Hold page, with the instruction "Initiate a new Quality Hold record. Please follow the 3-step wizard below." A step indicator across the top shows the three steps: Identify & Scope, Containment, and Disposition.

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Step 1: Identify & Scope

This step captures why the hold exists and what it covers.

• Hold Reason (required). Choose one of four cards that best describes why you are holding the material:
  • Suspected Defect — a potential non-conformance detected in product.
  • Regulatory Concern — a compliance or safety regulation issue.
  • Customer Hold — requested specifically by a customer.
  • Administrative — an internal process or inventory check.
• Asset & Material Scope (optional). Enter the Production Line/Cell and the Affected Material/Part Number so the hold points at the right place on the floor and the right part.
• Identification.
  • Hold Title (required) — a concise title for the hold.
  • Observation/Reasoning (required) — describe what you saw or why you are holding the material, up to 2000 characters.

Select Next Step once you have chosen a reason and filled in the title and the observation. The button stays disabled until those three are complete.

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Step 2: Containment

This step records how the material is being kept out of use.

• Containment Strategy (required). Select one or more methods that apply. The button to continue stays disabled until at least one is selected:
  • Physical Quarantine — physically segregate the material.
  • Systemic Hold — a software lock on inventory batches.
  • Tagging & Labeling — apply red reject or hold tags.
  • Supplier Notification — alert external vendors or partners.
• Location Details. Enter the Storage Location / Bin where the material sits, and choose a Quarantine Area from the built-in list: Secure Cage A, Red Zone (Non-Conforming), QA Lab Hold Shelf, or Shipping Dock Hold.
• Immediate Actions. Tick the containment tasks you have completed: Apply physical hold tags, Move material to secure area, and Notify floor supervisor.

Select Next Step to continue.

Step 3: Disposition

This step sets what should happen to the held material and who signs it off.

• Disposition Type (required). Choose one card:
  • Release — material is good; return it to inventory.
  • Rework / Re-inspect — it needs modification or further testing.
  • Scrap — it is unusable and should be disposed of.
  • Return to Vendor — send it back to the supplier for credit or replacement.
• Instructions (optional) — detail the specific steps for the chosen disposition, up to 500 characters.
• Approver & Timeline.
  • Assign Reviewer — select the person who will review the hold.
  • Target Release Date — set the date you expect the hold to be resolved.
  • Quantity (required) — how much material is held; it must be greater than zero.
  • Unit (required) — the unit of measure for that quantity.
  • Severity (required) — choose Stop Ship, Production Hold, or Quarantine.

When the disposition type, a positive quantity, a unit, and a severity are all set, select Submit Quality Hold to create the hold.

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Hold tags and severity

Every hold placed through the wizard requires a physical hold tag, and its tag colour follows the severity you choose:

• Stop Ship gets a red tag — the most urgent level, used to prevent shipment.
• Production Hold gets a yellow tag — the default level, used to stop material moving through production.
• Quarantine gets an orange tag.

If you do not enter a specific tag number, the hold's own hold number is used as the tag number, so the tag always ties back to the record.

Example: holding an off-spec bracket batch at Granite Peak

At Granite Peak Manufacturing's Leeds Fabrication Plant, a first-article check on the laser line finds that a batch of 240 mounting brackets has an off-spec hole pattern. A quality lead needs to stop the batch before it moves to welding.

They open Quality > Holds, select New Hold, and work through the wizard:

• Step 1 — Identify & Scope. Reason Suspected Defect; Production Line/Cell "Line 2 - Laser Cutting"; Affected Material/Part Number "DOCS-BRK-4415"; Hold Title "DOCS - Off-spec hole pattern on BRK-4415 bracket batch"; Observation/Reasoning describing that the hole pattern is 2 mm out against drawing rev C.
• Step 2 — Containment. Strategies Physical Quarantine and Tagging & Labeling; Storage Location / Bin "Bay 2 staging"; Quarantine Area Red Zone (Non-Conforming); all three Immediate Actions ticked.
• Step 3 — Disposition. Disposition Rework / Re-inspect; Instructions "Re-drill hole pattern to drawing rev C, then re-inspect 100% before release"; Assign Reviewer the plant quality manager; Target Release Date next Friday; Quantity 240; Unit each; Severity Production Hold.

They select Submit Quality Hold, and the batch is now held with a yellow tag until it is reworked and re-inspected.

What happens after you submit

When you submit, Bulk creates the hold, gives it a hold number in the form HOLD-2026-0001 (the prefix, the current year, and a running four-digit sequence), and confirms with a "Hold created" message. You are taken straight to the new hold's detail page.

The hold opens with the status Active and appears in the Quality Holds list, where it can be filtered by status, type, severity, location, and date. From the hold's detail page you can later act on it — release it, release part of the quantity, or scrap it — and link it to a quality issue or NCR. Those follow-on actions are covered in their own guides.

Feature state and limitations

• Beta. Quality holds are still being refined; treat labels and behavior as subject to change and verify the record after you create it.
• The wizard always requires a physical tag. There is no control in the wizard to turn the tag off, so every hold you create this way is tagged; the tag number defaults to the hold number.
• Production Line/Cell and Affected Material/Part Number are free-text fields. Although their placeholder text reads "Search…", the current build accepts typed text and does not offer autocomplete from your master data.
• Quarantine Area is a fixed list. The four options (Secure Cage A, Red Zone (Non-Conforming), QA Lab Hold Shelf, Shipping Dock Hold) are built in and are not drawn from your own locations.
• The location stored on the hold is taken from the Production Line/Cell, or from the Storage Location / Bin if no line is entered.

Troubleshooting

• Next Step is greyed out. A step will not advance until its required fields are complete. Step 1 needs a hold reason, a hold title, and an observation. Step 2 needs at least one containment strategy. Fill the missing field to enable the button.
• Submit Quality Hold is greyed out. On the final step you must select a disposition type, enter a quantity above zero, choose a unit, and choose a severity. The button is also disabled briefly while the hold is being created.
• You are asked to discard changes. Selecting Cancel after you have started filling the form opens a Discard changes? prompt. Choose Continue Editing to keep your progress, or Discard Changes to leave the wizard and return to the Quality Holds list. Leaving discards the draft — it is not saved.
• Submitting fails with a permission error. Your role does not include quality hold creation. Ask an administrator for a role that grants it (Super user, Entity admin, or Quality).

Related guides

• Release a quality hold
• Create a quality issue
• Create an NCR
• Link quality and production records
• Quality overview