Understand quality management specification order of specificity

If there is a QM specification that has all the characteristics already linked to other QM specifications with higher precedence, no samples will be generated for that QM specification.

When multiple active QM specifications for an entity have the same characteristics within them, then the system determines which QM specification takes precedence. Each sample is linked to certain QM specifications, which are considered in the order of specificity of their contexts.

The point in determining the precedence of QM specifications is that any given characteristic can only be represented by a single QM specification when it is time to actually capture data, whichever one is linked to it that has the greatest specificity.

The context fields are as follows, listed in order of increasing specificity:

• Entity/Entity class (ent_id).

• Item (item_id).

• Item Category (item_category_id).

• Process and Operation (process_id and oper_id). The process_id is only considered for work orders instantiated from a process.

For the purpose of determining specificity, the process and operation are collectively considered as a single field, which is referred as operation in the following discussion. The order of specificity is based on the following criteria.

Context Fields

Specifications with more context fields with non-null values are preferred over specifications with fewer context fields with non-null values. For example, a specification with three context fields is always more specific than a specification with two context fields.

Operation

Operation is considered more specific than entity, item, or item category.

Item

Item is considered more specific than item category.

Item/Item Category

Item or item category are considered more specific than the entity.

Entity

Lower-level entities are considered more specific than the higher-level entities, such as entity classes.

Combination Contexts with No Common Elements

The levels of specificity of combinations of two fields, where one in common is decided by the one that is not common. For example, a combination of operation and item is considered more specific than a combination of item and entity, because the operation is more specific than the entity.

Operation and Item Category

The levels of specificity of combinations of two fields, where none are in common are decided by the single field which is the most specific. For example, a combination of operation and item category is considered more specific than a combination of item and entity, because the operation is more specific than the item or entity.

If the context fields for multiple QM specifications are the same, then the precedence is set first by the specification effective start date (start_eff_utc), and then alphabetically by the specification name.