Configuring Supplier Change Notification Email Processing (QMS)

Vault QMS has built-in tools for processing supplier change notification emails making it easier to get supplier change notifications into the system, triage the record, and allow users to determine if a Change Control or other Quality Event is required.

Configuration Overview

Complete these steps to set up automated Supplier Change Notification intake:

  • Create Person and Organization object records appropriate for potential Supplier Contacts.
  • Configure one or more Inbound Email Addresses for notification intake.
  • Configure a user action to extract and relate objects parsed from Supplier Change Notification attachments.
  • Configure the Supplier Change Notification object page layout to suit your processes.

Configuring Inbound Email Addresses for Supplier Change Notification Intake

To configure an Inbound Email Address for use with supplier change notifications:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Inbound Email Addresses.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Enter a Label.
  4. Enter an Email Address that Vault QMS will monitor for supplier change notifications. Your organization’s email server should be configured to redirect or forward emails from specific supplier contacts to this address.
  5. In the Email Processor dropdown, select Create Supplier Change Notification.
  6. In the Allowed Senders dropdown, select All Users & Persons in this Vault.
  7. Select an Email Processor User. This User should have the proper permissions to intake emails in this Vault.
  8. Click Submit.

Configuring the Extract & Relate Entity from Attachment Action

To configure Vault to extract and relate objects from Supplier Change Notification attachments:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Object Lifecycles > Supplier Change Notification Lifecycle and click on an applicable object lifecycle state.
  2. In the User Actions section, click Edit.
  3. Select the Extract and Relate Entity from Attachment action from the drop-down.
  4. Select a Match Object. This value indicates which object Vault should search for when parsing information from the attachment. For example, select Material if you want Vault to look for information pertaining to materials.
  5. Select a Match Field. This value indicates which field on the Match Object Vault should match parsed text to. For example, the Material field on the Qualification object.
  6. Select a Related Object to Populate. This value indicates which object Vault should establish a relationship with the Supplier Change Notification. The object chosen must have an outbound reference to both the Match Object and the Supplier Change Notification objects.
  7. Provide an Action Label. For example, “Extract Materials from Attachment”.
  8. Click Save.

Users who execute this user action must have View permissions for Supplier Change Notification attachments and the Create permission for the object indicated as the Related Object to Populate. If a user does not have the appropriate permissions, the extraction job fails. When the user action executes, records are retrieved and matched based on which objects the user has Read access to.

Configuring the Supplier Change Notification Object Page Layout

We recommend the following adjustments to the Supplier Change Notification object page layout to take advantage of automated intake features:

  • Add the Email Body section to the page layout. In this section, Vault renders the email for viewing in its original language. In some situations, special characters may not render as they might in an email viewer. Alternatively, add the Email Body application control field to a one-column details layout. Adding the field to a two-column layout may cause the email to display with incorrect proportions. Vault excludes the Email Body field from downloadable PDFs of Supplier Change Notification records.
  • Add a Supplier Change Notification Emails related object section.
  • If appropriate for your processes, add Impacted Sites or Impact Assessments related object sections to the layout.

To view Supplier Change Notifications and perform impact assessments on them, a user requires a security profile which grants them the following permissions:

  • Read, Create, and Edit permissions on the Supplier Change Notification object
  • Read, Create, and Edit permissions on the SCN - Impacted Site object
  • Read, Create, and Edit permissions on the SCN Impact Assessment object
  • Read permission on the Email, Person, and Organization objects