How to NetSuite: Quality Management Matters

For 2025, NetSuite has made several ‘Quality Management’ feature enhancements. These include Statistical Sampling, Enhanced Receipt Return Authorization, and Process and Visibility Enhancements.  This article focuses on the Statistical Sampling enhancement, and provides a real-world example of where such a sample, its standards, and criteria might be applied to resolve assembly/production issues. 

NetSuite Quality Management - Statistical Sampling Functionality 

As of NetSuite 2025.1, Quality Management SuiteApp now includes a new Statistical Sampling feature that enables a compliance-driven approach to quality assurance. The new functionality allows users to perform targeted inspections based on item, transaction, and volume combinations.

 With the Statistical Sampling feature, you can define your inspections using any of the following sampling types:

• Item-Based: Define inspection standards for specific items.
• Volume-Based: Tailor inspection standards by volume range and defect limits.
• Transaction-Based: Perform inspections based on transaction types with defect thresholds.
• Transaction & Volume-Based: Combine transaction and volume criteria for precise inspections.

The Quality Management SuiteApp now supports criteria to align with the following three defect categories:

• Critical: High-severity issues.
• Major: Medium-severity issues.
• Minor: Low-severity issues.

How the new features might be applied:

Let’s see an example of how these Sampling and Quality Management standards might be applied.

Assume you manufacture several sizes of swimming pool pumps. The pumps have various capacities and ratings, for example:

1. Variable Speed, 2.7 total horsepower, 115V/230V Energy Efficient Pool Pump
2. Variable Speed, 1.85 total horsepower, 115V/230V Energy Efficient Pool Pump
3. Variable Speed, 1.65 total horsepower, 115/V230V Energy Efficient Pool Pump

You've been managing an assembly production run for the pumps shown in #3 above.

There are both Item-based standards (for the specific pump) and Transaction-based standards (for the assembly of these pumps).

• An example of an Item-based standard might include: “Runs for 15 minutes at highest speed without visible leakage.”
  • Specifications should be established to reflect the measures for ‘runs for 15 minutes,’ ‘highest speed,’ and ‘no visible leakage.’
• Failure to meet the standard, or any of the specifications for the standard, would be a ‘Critical’ or High-severity issue unless the immediate cause, such as a leak, can be determined and resolved. Even with resolution, a quality control reinspection and perhaps production line product run inspections may be required to reclassify the quality control finding.

During the production run, you reach the point where one of the finished pumps is selected as the 'statistical sample' for quality inspection. 

If the statistical sample shows a leak from the Strainer Cover of the Pump, and the cause was quickly determined to be a leak due to a ‘cracked Strainer Cover O-Ring’ (the part shown by the red #2 in the diagram below), then the quality management inspector would most likely define this as a ‘Major or Medium-severity issue'  that necessitates replacement of the O-ring for the test pump, and a visual inspection of the O-rings for each of the pumps in the production run.

If visual inspection of the pumps in today’s assembly production run shows that only the ‘tested’ pump exhibited this quality deficiency, no additional sampling would be required.

On the other hand, if the inspections showed multiple O-rings with the same defect, it becomes necessary to ascertain if the cause is a defective part from the O-ring manufacturer (which should have been caught during the ‘receiving inspection’) or if the problem is being created when an improper installation method occurs during the assembly process.

Proper quality management during and after assembly production, and before final acceptance of assembled items, reduces product returns due to non-compliance with established manufacturing standards.