The Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) application is specifically designed within CIS-CPG to manage the end-to-end process of product quality issues that involve suppliers. It tracks the issue from discovery, through investigation and root cause analysis, to the corrective action request sent to the supplier, and finally to the verification of the supplier’s response. While Case or Incident might log the issue, SCAR provides the structured workflow and supplier collaboration needed for quality management.

Building a workflow is the most efficient and maintainable approach. Workflows in ServiceNow provide a visual, declarative way to design complex business processes. You can define a trigger condition (e.g., ‘Severity’ is ‘High’), and then add flow logic to automatically create a task (like a containment action) and send a notification. This is easier to visualize, modify, and audit compared to scripting in a Business Rule for this type of multi-step process.

Similarity Scoring is a ServiceNow feature that can be configured for tables like Quality Issue. It uses algorithms to compare text in fields (like description, symptom) of a new record against existing records. It then presents a list of potentially similar issues, helping the analyst quickly find past resolutions and identify recurring problems, thereby saving time and improving decision-making.

The ‘Received Product’ record is central to inbound quality in CPG. It is created upon receipt of goods (linked to the Purchase Order and Supplier). Inspections and Quality Tests are performed *against* the Received Product record. The results, including any defects, are stored there, creating a complete audit trail from supplier and PO through to the inspection outcome.

A bar chart is ideal for showing the count of defects by reason (e.g., ‘Label Misprint’ – 15, ‘Seal Failure’ – 10), providing a clear visual of top contributors. Pairing it with a list (showing the actual defect records behind the chart) allows the manager to see the summary data and then drill down into specific cases for further investigation, offering both high-level and detailed views.

The Approval Engine, embedded within a workflow, is designed for this exact purpose. You can build a workflow for the Recipe table that, upon submission, routes the record sequentially or concurrently to the required approvers (food scientist, regulatory specialist). The Approval Engine manages the tasks, due dates, decisions (Approve/Reject), and ensures the process is enforced and auditable.

Containment is an immediate, short-term action focused on isolation. Its primary purpose is to stop the impact from spreading. This involves identifying and quarantining affected inventory in warehouses, initiating market withdrawals, or placing holds on production lines—all aimed at preventing further potential harm to customers while the investigation for root cause proceeds.

ServiceNow’s collaboration features allow you to grant external users (like suppliers) a ‘Collaborator’ role. You can then design the SCAR form with specific sections (e.g., ‘Supplier Response’) where fields for their analysis and plan are editable for them. Meanwhile, other sections containing the original issue data can be made read-only for that role using UI Policies or Read-Only field attributes, providing secure, structured collaboration.

The Reporting module in ServiceNow supports creating reports with multi-table data sources (like a join). To calculate the total ‘Cost of Quality,’ you need to relate data from the SCAR, Quality Issue, and Task tables (likely linked through common fields like number or configuration item). A multi-table report is the native, maintainable way to create this unified view without manual external processes.

The Supplier Corrective Action Request (SCAR) application is specifically designed within CIS-CPG to manage the end-to-end process of product quality issues that involve suppliers. It tracks the issue from discovery, through investigation and root cause analysis, to the corrective action request sent to the supplier, and finally to the verification of the supplier’s response. While Case or Incident might log the issue, SCAR provides the structured workflow and supplier collaboration needed for quality management.0