Resolve a quality problem

When something is wrong with the product — a batch of parts out of tolerance, a scratched finish, the wrong material — you need one place to record it, work out why it happened, decide what to do with the affected material, and prove it was dealt with. In Bulk that place is the Quality module, and the record you work with is a quality issue: the everyday record of a single defect or problem, from the moment it is found to the moment it is closed.

This page is the end-to-end map of that workflow. It explains how a quality issue moves through its life, which control does each job, and where the affected material and any corrective action fit in. Each stage links to a focused task guide, so use this page to see the whole path and jump into the detailed steps when you need them.

Reach for this workflow whenever a problem needs to be tracked to a resolution rather than fixed on the spot — because material has to be dispositioned, because a customer or standard needs a record, or because you want to stop the same defect coming back.

Before you begin

• Access to the Quality module. The Quality module only appears in the left sidebar under MODULES if your role grants it. Bulk ships a dedicated Quality role for people who work in this area full time; administrator roles (Super user and Entity admin) include it too. If Quality is missing from your sidebar, that is a role matter — ask your organization's administrator. See Understand access and visible navigation.
• The right plant. A quality issue belongs to the single plant (also called a site or entity) you have open. Work in the plant where the problem occurred, and switch plants from the plant switcher at the top of the sidebar if your work moves between sites. See Switch operational context.
• Permissions for each step. Within Quality, individual actions are gated separately. Viewing and editing an issue, dispositioning affected material, and closing an issue each require their own permission, so what you can do on an issue depends on your role. The Quality and administrator roles carry all of these by default.

How a quality issue moves through its life

Every quality issue has a status that shows where it is in the workflow. There are four, and Bulk only lets an issue move between them along a fixed path:

• Open — a new issue starts here. The problem is recorded but not yet resolved.
• In Review — an optional working state while you investigate.
• Resolved — a disposition has been decided and the affected material has a plan. An issue can only reach this state once you have set a disposition.
• Closed — the issue is finished and filed. An issue can only be closed once it is resolved, and only by someone with permission to close.

Two rules are worth remembering because Bulk enforces them: you cannot resolve an issue until you have set a disposition, and you cannot close an issue until it is resolved. You can also reopen a resolved or closed issue back to Open if something was missed.

The rest of this page walks the workflow in the order you will usually do it.

1. Capture the problem

Open Quality from the sidebar and go to Issues, then select New Issue (you can also use the New menu on the Quality Home page and choose New Issue). Bulk opens a three-step Create Quality Issue form:

1. Source & Info — where the problem came from and a short title and description.
2. Classification — severity, quality category, the quantity affected, and the production job it relates to.
3. Assignment & Review — who owns it, any photos as evidence, and a final review before you save.

Select Submit & Create Issue. Bulk assigns the issue a number of the form QI-2026-0042 and opens it at status Open. For the full field-by-field walkthrough, see Create a quality issue.

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2. Triage and assign

New issues land on the Issues list. Use the status tabs (Open, In Review, Resolved, Closed) and the filter bar — severity, disposition, category, source, assignee, root cause, job, and date — to find what needs attention. Open any row to work the issue.

• Give it an owner. You can assign an owner while creating the issue, or later: select one or more issues in the list and choose Assign from the bulk action bar. The issue's Status & Assignment card shows the current assignee, or Unassigned.
• Mark it as being worked. To move an issue into In Review, select it in the list and choose Change Status, then pick In Review. Change Status only offers the moves that are valid for the issue right now, so you will not see options the workflow does not allow.

3. Investigate

Open the issue to reach its detail page — the workspace for everything about that problem. The page is organized into cards:

• Details — the issue's context and production details.
• Status & Assignment — the workflow state, severity, and who owns it.
• Evidence — photos and supporting files. Select Upload Evidence to add more.
• Root Cause Analysis — where you record why the problem happened. Choose a root cause from your plant's catalog and add investigation notes, then Save Root Cause. (Your administrator maintains the catalog under Settings → Quality → Root Causes.)
• Linked Records — the NCR, 8D, and CAPA connected to this issue (covered next).
• Comments and an Activity Timeline and Audit Trail that record who did what and when.

Recording a root cause is what turns a logged defect into something you can prevent. For the detailed investigation and review steps, see Review and close a quality issue.

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4. Contain and escalate when the problem is bigger

Not every issue stops at a single record. Bulk gives you linked record types for containment and formal follow-up, all reachable from the Quality New menu and shown on the issue's Linked Records card:

• Hold — quarantine the suspect material so it cannot move forward in production until someone reviews and releases it. Raise one from New → New Hold. See Put work on quality hold and Release a quality hold.
• NCR (non-conformance report) — the formal record that material or a process did not meet its specification, often shared with a customer or supplier. See Create an NCR.
• CAPA (corrective and preventive action) — a tracked plan that fixes the root cause and stops the problem recurring. See Create and manage a CAPA.
• 8D report — works a serious problem through the structured eight-discipline method used with customers and suppliers. From the Linked Records card you can select Assign 8D to link an existing 8D report to the issue. See Create and manage an 8D report.

An issue can be worked through an 8D report or a CAPA, but not both at once — linking one shows the other as managed through it. When an issue is linked to an 8D report, its root cause is defined in the report's D4 discipline and flows back to the issue automatically, so the Root Cause Analysis card becomes read-only on the issue.

5. Decide a disposition and resolve

Disposition is the decision about what happens to the affected material. It is also the gate to resolving the issue: setting a disposition moves the issue to Resolved in one step.

On the issue detail page, select Set Disposition. In the dialog, choose one option, enter the Quantity it applies to, and give a Reason:

• Scrap — the material cannot be used and is written off.
• Rework — the material can be corrected and re-checked.
• Use As Is — the material is acceptable despite the deviation.
• Return to Supplier — the material goes back to whoever supplied it.
• Concession — the material is accepted by agreement, typically with a customer sign-off.

Confirm with Set Disposition. Bulk records the decision and moves the issue to Resolved, stamping who resolved it and when in the audit trail. To disposition and close several matching issues together, select same-status rows on the Issues list and choose Disposition & Close from the bulk action bar. That combined action applies one disposition and reason, resolves any unresolved issue, and closes the group in one confirmation.

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6. Close the issue

Once an issue is Resolved and the work is genuinely done — rework verified, material dispositioned, any corrective action in hand — select Close Issue on the detail page. Bulk moves the issue to Closed and records who closed it. The Close Issue button only appears when the issue is resolved and you have permission to close, so if you do not see it, check those two things first. For the closure checklist, see Review and close a quality issue.

If a closed or resolved issue turns out to need more work, select it in the Issues list and use Change Status → Open to reopen it.

Example: a burr defect at Granite Peak

Granite Peak Manufacturing runs the Leeds Fabrication Plant, a UK precision-fabrication site. During in-process inspection, an operator finds that a batch of 40 stainless-steel brackets on job J-4821 has burrs on the laser-cut edges beyond the drawing tolerance.

1. Capture. Dana Winters, the plant's quality lead, opens Quality → Issues → New Issue. On Source & Info she sets the source to inspection and titles it Burrs on bracket cut edges — J-4821. On Classification she picks a High severity, the Machining defect category, a quantity of 40, and links job J-4821. On Assignment & Review she assigns a quality engineer and attaches a photo, then selects Submit & Create Issue. Bulk creates QI-2026-0042 at status Open.
2. Contain. Because the brackets are still on the floor, Dana raises a Hold from New → New Hold so the batch cannot advance until it is dispositioned.
3. Investigate. On the issue, the engineer records a Root Cause Analysis of a worn cutting nozzle and notes the maintenance finding, then selects Save Root Cause. Dana moves the issue to In Review from the list while the investigation runs.
4. Escalate. Since this nozzle has caused repeat defects, Dana links a CAPA to schedule a nozzle-replacement interval, so the fix is tracked to completion.
5. Resolve. The 40 brackets can be corrected, so Dana selects Set Disposition, chooses Rework, sets the quantity to 40, and enters the reason deburr edges and re-inspect. The issue moves to Resolved.
6. Close. After the reworked brackets pass re-inspection and the hold is released, Dana selects Close Issue. QI-2026-0042 is now Closed, with the whole history — root cause, disposition, and corrective action — recorded against it.

Expected result

When the workflow is complete you have a single quality issue that tells the full story: what the problem was, how many units it affected, why it happened, what was decided for the material, any hold or corrective action it triggered, and who resolved and closed it. Its status reads Closed, and the defect is reflected in the Quality module's dashboards — the defect Pareto and first-pass-yield trend on Quality → Home — so recurring problems become visible over time.

Feature state and limits

• Issues are generally available. The core resolve workflow — creating, investigating, dispositioning, resolving, and closing quality issues — is a standard, supported part of Bulk.
• Escalation records are in Beta. NCRs, CAPAs, Holds, and 8D Reports are marked Beta in the sidebar. Use them, but expect their screens and behavior to change.
• Actions depend on your permissions. Dispositioning and closing are gated separately from viewing and editing. If a control is missing, it is almost always a permissions matter rather than a fault.
• The path between statuses is fixed. Bulk only allows valid moves: a disposition is required before an issue can be resolved, and an issue must be resolved before it can be closed. This is deliberate — it keeps the record trustworthy.

If something does not work

• You cannot resolve the issue. Bulk blocks the move with Set a disposition before resolving this issue. Set a disposition first — that is what resolves it. Use Set Disposition on the detail page.
• The Close Issue button is missing, or closing is refused. An issue must be Resolved before it can be closed, and closing needs the close permission. Check the status first, then your permissions with your administrator.
• You cannot move an issue to In Review from its detail page. The In Review and reopen moves are made from the Issues list: select the issue and use Change Status. The detail page's header actions are Set Disposition and Close Issue.
• The Root Cause Analysis card is read-only. The issue is linked to an 8D report, so its root cause is defined in the report's D4 discipline and syncs back automatically. Edit it there, or unlink the 8D.
• A quality record is missing from your sidebar. NCRs, CAPAs, Holds, and 8D Reports are separate Beta areas gated by their own permissions. Ask your administrator if you expect one and cannot see it.

Related guidance

• Quality and compliance
• Create a quality issue
• Review and close a quality issue
• Put work on quality hold
• Release a quality hold
• Create an NCR
• Create and manage a CAPA
• Create and manage an 8D report
• Link quality and production records
• Quality reference