Quality Relationship Automation (QMS)

Vault QMS Admins can configure certain complex join relationship objects to be automatically bi-directional once established. This can link two records of the same object together, such as the Related Quality Event object in QMS, and these relationships can optionally describe the nature in which the two records are linked. This streamlines the way in which users identify related records, reduces the amount of effort required to link records of the same object, and means that users only need to reference one page section when reviewing all links between such records.

This feature targets relationship objects which describe relationships between records of the same object; you cannot establish this kind of relationship between records of different objects in this release. This two-way relationship is supported for the source and related Quality Event (quality_event__qdm), Audit (audit__qdm), CAPA (capa_action__qdm) Change Control (change_control__v), Change Plan (change_plan__v), Deviation (deviation__v), Finding (finding__v), Lab Investigation (lab_investigation__v), Continuous Improvement (continuous_improvement__v), Nonconformance (nonconformance__v), and MedTech CAPA (medtech_capa__v) objects.

How Automated Quality Object Relationships Work

Administrators can configure the Quality Relationship Automation component to be active for any object type of the Related Quality Event, Related Audit, or Related CAPA objects. Once configured, new records of those object types are automatically duplicated in the inverse direction whenever a user relates two Quality Events, Audits, or CAPA-Quality Events via records of this object. This means that no matter which side of a related record set a user views, the user can reference one section on the page to see all inbound and outbound links to other records of the same object.

Note that since there are two records to describe the same relationship but in inverse directions, ensure that you configure reports to only show either outbound or inbound related records of this type, or else you may see more data than you expect in your solutions.

Vault synchronizes some key data between records in a two-way relationship. On creation of a new record, for most custom field data types, Vault copies the specified value on the user-created record to the same field on the inverse record. If the Relationship Nature field is changed on either side of a paired set of related object records, Vault updates the inverse paired record’s Relationship Nature field based on your nature configuration with the same or inverse value. Vault does not synchronize changes to other fields made after the initial save.

Certain fields, such as formula fields or system provided fields like Lifecycle or Lifecycle State are excluded from this synchronization, as they are unique to each record’s configuration. Certain fields on the paired related object records can’t be updated by users. Vault displays an error if a user attempts to update the Reciprocal Link ID or Related [Quality Object] field.

Vault captures any errors encountered while attempting to create the two-way record link in the Create Reciprocal Link Error field. Consider creating a dashboard, flash report, or a job to make visible any configuration issues leading to record creation failures during configuration and verification activities.

Setting Up Quality Relationship Automation

Configure the following Vault components to start using automated quality object relationships in your vault:

Configuring the Quality Object Page Layout

On each applicable Quality object page layout, add a related object section for the Related Quality Event, Related Audit, or Related CAPA-Quality Event, respectively. Because related objects are duplicated by relationship automation, we recommend adding the section for only the outbound relationship. This ensures that the current record is referenced in the Quality Event field of the related records displayed on a given quality object record.

Defining QMS Record Relationship Natures

You can define the natures available to users when they relate two Quality objects by creating values in the standard picklist QMS Record Relationship Nature, which does not have any values defined by default. If you want to allow users to describe relationship natures in this way, you must first define the relationship natures in base/inverse pairs, such that this picklist represents all values which could describe either directionality of two records being related to one another. When later mapping these nature values as base/inverse pairs, you must define both sides of the nature. This has the effect of creating a descriptive statement within the related object section.

For example, if you define a nature as Duplicates, you may define a second picklist value to describe that nature’s inverse, such as Is Duplicated By. If you then have two Audit records, AUD-032 and AUD-045, a user could add AUD-045 as a related record on AUD-032 and select Duplicates as its nature. Then, when any user views AUD-045, its related object section would describe the relationship as “AUD-0045 Is Duplicated By AUD-032”, providing a clear description of the link between the two records.

You can also define “simple” relationship natures which do not have an inverse mapping. For example, Is similar to. When a user selects a value during the creation of a related record object record when there is no inverse mapping configured, the paired related object record’s configured picklist has the same value as the initial record.

Creating Quality Relationship Automation Configurations

Each Quality Relationship Automation configuration component establishes a two-way relationship between Quality records of the same object type. Within configurations, you can map values to allow users to describe the nature of these relationships when they are created.

To create a Quality Relationship Automation:

  1. Navigate to Admin > Configuration > Quality Relationship Automation.
  2. Click Create.
  3. Enter a Label.
  4. Select a Quality object from the Object drop-down.
  5. In the Source / Left Hand Field drop-down, select the parent object reference field. For example, Audit. This field must be a Parent Object reference field.
  6. In the Target / Right Hand Field drop-down, select the object reference field on the same object. For example, Related Audit. This field must be a Related Object reference field to the same object selected as the Source / Left Hand Field.
  7. In the Picklist / Relationship Values drop-down, select any picklist field on the specified object which targets the QMS Record Relationship Natures picklist.
  8. Optional: In the value mapping section, click Add Mapped Value and choose a base nature and its inverse. Choose whether the mapping is Active or Inactive. You can add additional mappings by clicking (+). You do not need to define any base/inverse mappings for the picklist if your relationships can be described with a single value, such as Is similar to.
  9. Click Save.

If necessary, create additional Quality Relationship Automation configurations for each applicable Quality object type.

The following permissions affect Quality object relationship automation, in addition to permissions to the Join objects and fields:

Type Permission Label Controls
Security Profile Admin: Quality Relationship Automation Ability to view, create, edit, or delete Quality Relationship Automation configuration components.