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QA Incident Intake & CAPA RoutingWorkflow

Turn messy QA emails (defects, deviations, complaints, inspection findings) into structured incident records, route them to the right owners, and track CAPA-style closure with SLAs and audit-ready logs.

CORE PROMISE
IntakeClassifyExtractValidateRouteTrack Closure

(Less chaos, faster containment)

Best For:
Manufacturing QA Teams
Plant Operations
Supplier Quality
Production Support
Compliance & Quality Leadership

Common pain points we solve

Quality issues don’t arrive neatly. They come through:

Long threads with attachments (photos, PDFs, lab reports)

Emails from plant floors, inspectors, suppliers, customers

Inconsistent descriptions and missing critical details

Teams waste time on:

Routing to the right engineer or supplier quality owner

Figuring out what the issue actually is

Chasing missing info and approvals

Identifying which line/part/lot is affected

Tracking CAPA steps in spreadsheets and inboxes

Where this fits

Ideal starting scope for a pilot implementation

Teams Involved

  • QA / QC
  • Supplier Quality
  • Production Engineering
  • Compliance
  • Maintenance (optional)

Channels

  • Shared QA inbox
  • Internal email threads
  • Attachments (photos, PDFs, Excel)

Ideal Pilot Scope

  • 1 QA inbox or 1 plant site
  • 6–8 incident categories
  • 1 CAPA-style workflow (Assign → Investigate → Approve → Close)

Inputs & Outputs

What goes in and what comes out

Inputs

  • Emails and forwarded QA threads

  • Attachments: photos, inspection reports, PDFs, spreadsheets

  • Reference data (optional but valuable): Part master

    • Supplier list
    • Line/station mapping
    • Defect taxonomy

Outputs

  • Structured incident record (JSON / CSV)

  • Owner assignment + priority + due date

  • Ticket or task created in workflow tool

  • Missing-info request templates

  • SLA timers + escalation triggers

  • Dashboards: Incident volume, Aging, Repeat defect patterns

  • Audit log: What was reported, Extracted fields, Routing decision, Closure evidence

What incidents it covers (starter set)

Production defects

scrap/rework/inspection fails

Supplier quality issues

nonconforming incoming parts

Process deviations

out-of-spec measurements

Customer complaints / returns quality

Line stoppage quality triggers

(optional)

Documentation noncompliance

(optional)

The Workflow

Step-by-step automation from intake to tracking

Step 1

Intake

Issue reported via email/form (internal/external)

Step 2

Understand

Classify incident type + severity (defect, deviation, supplier issue, customer complaint)

Step 3

Extract

Part number, lot/batch, line/station, date/time, site, defect type, quantity impacted, supplier (if relevant)

Step 4

Validate

Required fields by incident type + sanity checks (e.g., lot required for batch-based)

Step 5

Route

Assign owner + create work item (QA engineer, SQE, production)

Step 6

Action Tracking

Capture investigation steps, attach evidence, request approvals

Step 7

Closure

Verify corrective action complete + log outcome + reason codes

What ApexIQ Delivers

Incident Taxonomy

6-8 types + severity rules

Entity Extraction + Normalization

Part/lot/line/date/qty/defect

Validation Rules

Per incident type (required fields checklist)

Routing Rules Engine

Owner assignment, escalation paths

Exception Lane

For missing fields or low-confidence extraction

Workflow Integration

Handle missing or low-confidence updates

CAPA-style Tracking

Steps, approvals, closure checklist

Dashboards

Aging, repeat issues, top defect types, supplier trends

Audit Trails

Incident record history + decisions + edits + timestamps

Integrations & Data Sources

We integrate based on your stack

Email

  • Outlook/Microsoft 365
  • Gmail/Google Workspace

Workflow

  • Jira/ServiceNow/Asana/Monday
  • Internal QMS tool

Reference data

  • ERP/PLM part master
  • Supplier directory
  • Station mapping

Docs

  • SharePoint/Drive storage
  • Evidence management

Notifications

  • Teams/Slack (optional)

Accuracy & Safety Controls

Built-in safeguards and quality measures

Confidence scoring for extracted fields

Templates to request missing info (e.g., lot/batch + station + quantity impacted)

Validation-first design (don't route incomplete incidents blindly)

Audit trail for edits (who changed what and why)

Human review lane for low confidence or missing critical IDs

Escalation rules for high severity (safety, line stop, customer impact)

Honest positioning

Automates intake, routing, and tracking.

Humans still make engineering judgments.

Reduces admin work and speeds containment.

Pilot Plan (2–4 Weeks)

A proven timeline to get you to production

W1Week 1

Define Taxonomy & Fields

  • Choose incident categories and required fields
  • Gather sample emails and attachments
  • Define routing rules and severity thresholds
W2Week 2

Build Intake + Extraction + Routing

  • Configure classification and extraction
  • Implement validation and exception lane
  • Create workflow integration (ticket creation & assignment)
W3Week 3

Shadow run + Tuning

  • Run alongside current process
  • Measure routing accuracy and extraction reliability
  • Reduce missing-field back-and-forth with templates
W4Week 4

Operationalize + Expand

  • Add escalation triggers and dashboards
  • Add another incident category or second site
  • Deliver runbooks and governance handover

Pilot KPI Targets

Reduction in time spent triaging QA emails
Faster time-to-assign owner
Reduction in missing-info loops
SLA adherence (aging reduction)
Repeat defect visibility (top reasons & trends)
Routing accuracy and field extraction quality

What We Need From You

Client checklist to kick off the pilot

1
200–400 sample QA emails (anonymized) with attachments if possible
2
Defect / incident taxonomy + severity rules (or we draft them)
3
Routing matrix (who owns what)
4
Workflow destination tool access
5
Reference data: part master / supplier list (optional but strong)
6
One QA lead + one reviewer for weekly tuning

Want faster containment and cleaner CAPA workflows without inbox chaos?

Book a consultation or request an assessment—we'll recommend the best first workflow to pilot.