problem with interfacing SAP with LIMS

[Former Member]

Dear all,

               I am working on a project of interfacing SAP with LIMS (caliber lims). At the mfg location we receive materials containing mfg date and expiry date, some times we receive materials without expiry date. Material document from SAP is downloaded in LIMS where testing activity and usage decision for the material is given LIMS. When the usage decision data is transferred to SAP, material document with expiry date is transferred in SAP and material document without expiry date is not transferred back to SAP. Due to this reason i am not able to proceed with further with the project, I request to you all to help me in matter, so that i can proceed with the project.

Thanks

Harish Ramachandran

[former_member42743]

I assume this is a custom interface you have designed ot work with Caliper LIMS.  Is that correct?  Most standard LIMS interfaces use the QDI interface that SAP designed to work with LIMS.  So the first question, is why wasn't that used.  Te next thing is a warning.  Since you have a totally custom interface, there is a good chance that you won't find the help here that you need since no one else here has worked with your type of system.

That said, how are you transferring a material document?  Usually a material document is created as a result of a transaction.  Is your interface running a transaction to create the material doc?  Are you doing some type of IDOC process?  

First, look at the material master.  Do you have a shelf life value set up for all materials? Do the materials having the transfer problem havea shelf life value?  If so, the expiration date is required.  On GR if you are required to put in an expiration date or the system calculates one based on the GR date or date of manufacturer.  If  you create the LIMS transfer before this is done somehow, than I can see why it might not come back.

FF

[Former Member]

Thanks for the response to the mail.

We are using the standard QDI interface of SAP for transferring of data from SAP to LIMS. When the material is coming from a vendor for active product incredient both mfg date and expiry date is there. When it comes to excipient  vendor gives the mfg date and sometimes expiry date is not there. In the case of packaging material (unprinted and printed) both mfg date and expiry date are not there. So standard operating procedure can be developed to put the date of receipt of material as the mfg date in case of packaging material. Mfg date and expiry date is a compulsory data in LIMS. Data from SAP downloaded in LIMS, testing activity is recording and usage decision is given in LIMS. Usage decison when transferred back to SAP, for the inspection lots with mfg and expiry date it gets updated in SAP. Inspection lots with mfg date and no expiry date usage decision data is not updated. If we use the same UD code created for LIMS interfaces in SAP for the inspection lot with no expiry date it gives an error ' The Destination batch for transfer posting is expired'

thanks

with regards

harish Ramachandran

mobile no.09321044155

[former_member42743]

Ok. still a tad confused.  You indicate that for some excipient an exp. date is not provided and for packaging material a mfg and exp. date is not provided.  Yet you say that LIMS requires it.  So how does data get to LIMS?  Are you manually adding it via your SOP the dates in LIMS in order to process the samples? 

I know your excipent is batch managed and must have a shelf life so I'm kind of confused as to how you can receive in this material without getting an expiration date calculated.  If you provided a shelf life value SAP should require this.

As far as your packaging material, I assume it is also batch managed.  But you might not have any shelf life requirements for it.  If you manually add a mfg date on the LIMS side and hence transfer this data back to SAP you are basically sending a bogus exp date back in the transfer file.  Then that is being compared against a stored expiration date of 00/00/0000.  This interfers with the stock posting done as a result of the chosen UD passed back.  Since you require a shelf life in LIMS, I would give your packaging materials a shelf life like your active products.  But make it the maximum of say 9999 days.  Or maybe use years and set it to 99.  Then all your packaging materials will have an expiration date but it should never come into play.

I.e. if your LIMS requires an expiration date, don't send anything down from SAP that doesn't have one.  Don't allow an SOP that allows an expiratoin date to be applied on the LIMS side.

FF