QC Checkpoints and Release

A QC checkpoint is a short pass/fail checklist on a stage. It is answered when an item leaves that stage. If the checklist is required, the item can’t leave without a pass. Every answer is kept in the item’s history and printed on its release sheet.

QC checks apply to lots (grain spawn and blocks tracked by lot), to lab items (cultures, agar plates and liquid cultures), and to blocks and spawn bags tracked one by one. See Blocks and spawn bags for how each kind of block move handles a checklist. For the lab items themselves, see The Lab.

Who can do it

• Set up a checklist: Manager, Owner.
• Answer a checklist on a lot: anyone who can change the lot’s stage. That is a Worker or above, or only a Manager or Owner when the stage is marked Released by a Manager.
• Answer a checklist on a lab item: Manager, Owner.
• Print a release sheet: anyone who can open the lot.

Set up a checklist

1. Open Configuration in the sidebar and go to the Item types tab.
2. Click the pencil next to the item type, or New Item Type.
3. In Stages, find the stage the item will be leaving.
4. In QC checklist (one question per line), type each question on its own line. For example, Clean margins. You can have up to 12 questions, each up to 60 characters.
5. Tick Required to leave if items must pass before they leave this stage. Leave it unticked to make the checklist optional.
6. Click Save. If items are already in a stage you changed, you are asked why. The reason is kept in Activity.

Finished and discard stages have no checklist.

Answer the checklist on a lot

The checklist that is asked is the one on the stage the lot is leaving. It is not asked when units are discarded or reported contaminated.

1. Open the lot and click Change stage.
2. Pick the next Stage.
3. In QC check for …, mark each question Pass or Fail. The section says Required to leave … or Optional at this stage.
4. Fill in the rest of the form and click Confirm stage change.

An optional checklist can be left blank. If you start answering it, answer every question.

Answer the checklist on a lab item

1. Open the culture, plate or liquid culture.
2. In the Status card, pick the next stage under Change stage.
3. Mark each question Pass or Fail, and add a QC note (optional).
4. Click Save stage.

Blocks and spawn bags

Blocks and spawn bags tracked one by one (not by lot) follow the same rule: if the stage a block is leaving has Required to leave ticked, the block can only leave with a passing check. A stage with no checklist, or with an optional one, moves blocks as before. Discards and contamination reports are never asked, and neither is a sterilization Fail that discards the bag under your farm’s quality policy. On the web, if the move form already shows the checklist and you then mark the sterilization run as failed, the checklist goes away and the bag is discarded without it. On a farm with the Discarded stage turned off, a failed run isn’t a discard, so the checklist is still asked.

How each kind of move handles it:

• One block at a time: without a check, the move is refused with “A QC check is required to leave …” and the block stays. With failing answers, the block stays and you see that it failed its QC check. With passing answers, the block moves and the check is kept on the block’s history with who signed and when. Open the block’s page and the move in its history shows the checklist, each answer, who signed and when (web and phone).
• Many blocks at once (bulk move): one set of answers applies to every block whose stage asks for a check. Each of those blocks is judged on its own: blocks that pass move, and blocks that fail are listed as not moved, with the reason. A block coming from a stage with no checklist, or a bulk discard, ignores the answers and moves as usual.
• Scan station, phone scan and Farmhand: these can’t answer a checklist yet, so they can’t take a block out of a stage that requires one. A scan that names the next stage is refused with “A QC check is required to leave …”. A scan into a room that would set the block’s stage moves the block to the room and leaves its stage as it is, with the notice “Moved to … needs a QC check to leave, so the stage stays.” Move the block on the web or phone and answer the checklist to change its stage.

Answer the checklist on the web

The move form doesn’t know a block’s checklist until you try the move, so the first try is refused and the checklist appears:

1. Move the block as usual (block list, block page or batch page) and click Move.
2. If the stage asks for a check, the form says ”… asks a QC check before a block leaves. Answer it and press Move again.” and shows the checklist.
3. Mark each question Pass or Fail and click Move again.

If the answers fail, the form shows that the block failed its QC check and stays, and the block doesn’t move. You can answer again.

Answer the checklist on the phone

On a block’s page in the phone app, Advance Stage shows the checklist before you move, because the phone may save the move while offline and send it later. Mark each question Pass or Fail, then tap Move to …. If the checklist is required, the move waits until every question is answered. If an answer is Fail, the block stays and the sheet says it failed its QC check; change the answers and try again. A move to Discarded, a contamination report, and a sterilization Fail that discards the bag don’t show the checklist. If your farm only records a sterilization fail (quality policy), the checklist is still asked.

The phone works out the checklist from the block’s batch and your farm’s item types. While it is still reading the batch, the button says Checking for a QC checklist… and waits, so a move can’t go out without a checklist the stage needs. The phone also waits while your farm’s item types are still loading after the app opens. If it can’t read them (offline and never synced, for example), it moves on as before and saves the move without a checklist. If the stage requires one, the move then shows under Failed Items in the phone’s sync status, with “A QC check is required to leave …”. Move that block from the web, or from the phone once it is back online. This needs the phone app version that includes the checklist.

Bulk moves on the web

In a bulk move, the blocks that move without a check move straight away. The rest are listed as not moved, and under the list there is one checklist for each stage that held blocks back. Answer it and click Answer and move the N blocks that need it. Only those blocks are sent again, with your answers, 25 at a time. The summary then counts every block that moved.

Blocks held for a QC check don’t stop a large move: the rest are still sent, and one checklist covers every held block from that stage however many there are. One answer moves them all.

Record readings at a scan station

A kiosk scan station can take a lot’s readings (the batch fields in Configuration > Custom Fields > Batch Fields) without a keyboard. The station asks the fields set for the lot’s type at the stage the lot is in now. Turn it on by adding Record readings to the station’s profile on the Stations tab, and make sure Lot actions on phones is on so the station can read lot labels. Update the app on every station before you save a profile with Record readings: an older app can’t use that profile.

1. Pick your name or scan your badge.
2. Switch the station to Readings (or scan the Record readings card), then scan the lot label. You can also scan the lot in Choose mode and tap Readings.
3. The station shows one field at a time with its unit and target, and reading 2 of 3 when a field takes several readings. Type a number on the keypad and tap Done (for a reading below zero, such as -2.5 in a cold room, tap − before or after the number), or tap Yes, No or an option for a yes/no or pick-list field.
4. Tap Skip, or Done with nothing typed, to leave a reading out. Text and date fields are skipped at the station; enter them on the batch page.
5. After the last field the station shows how many values it will save. Tap Save.

A reading outside its target is saved and the station shows Outside the target with the range, the same flag the batch page shows. Fields you skip keep whatever was stored before. Undo takes the readings back while it is showing; Cancel closes the entry without saving.

If the lot’s stage has no readings set up, the station says No readings are set up for that stage and nothing is recorded. A block scanned in this mode gets Readings are recorded on lots at a station.

Readings from a station are recorded under the station’s own sign-in, not the name picked at the station.

What pass and fail do

• All pass: the item moves to the new stage. The history line notes QC passed.
• Any fail: the item stays in its stage. Readings and a new place sent with the move are not applied. A QC failed entry is added to the history, listing the questions that failed, and you see a message that the item failed its QC check and stays where it is.

There is no override. To move the item later, use Change stage again and answer the checklist again.

Release a lot

There is no separate release button. A lot is released when it moves on from its stage with Change stage. If the stage is marked Released by a Manager, only a Manager or Owner can do that. See Lots and Spawn.

Print a release sheet

1. Open the lot.
2. In the History card, click Release sheet.
3. Print it on letter paper.

The sheet lists the lot’s details and a QC checks table: the stage left, the result, the checks, the note, who signed and when. It has Released by and Date lines to sign by hand. The sheet is a printout only; it does not change the lot.

When something goes wrong

• “Answer every QC question.” — you answered some questions but not all, or the checklist is required and blank. Mark every question.
• “A QC check is required to leave …” — the stage has Required to leave ticked. Answer the checklist.
• ”… is not a QC question for …” — the checklist was changed while you had the form open. Close it, reopen the lot and try again.
• No QC section appears — the stage you are leaving has no checklist, or the item is a block and the move hasn’t been tried yet (see Answer the checklist on the web), or the lot uses a built-in item type your farm hasn’t edited. A Manager can add a checklist under Configuration > Item types.
• “Couldn’t load the lot’s full history.” on the release sheet — click Retry.
• The item failed but should have passed — a Manager can’t undo the result. Check the item again and move it with a new check. Both checks stay in the history.

With an AI assistant

A connected assistant can read the On hold list through the qc_status tool: what is flagged, what is waiting at a hold stage for release, since when and who put it there. Workers and up can ask, the same people who see the list in the app. Ask it something like “What’s on hold right now, and what’s been waiting longest?” Clearing a flag or releasing a lot is still done in the app.