Supplier management approval workflow stuck at manager level

QMS ETQ Reliance
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1

We’re experiencing a critical issue with our supplier onboarding workflow in ETQ Reliance 2021. Suppliers are getting stuck at the manager approval stage and not progressing to the next step.

The workflow state machine appears to be configured correctly in the admin console, and I’ve verified that managers have the appropriate permissions assigned to their roles. What’s puzzling is that the workflow was functioning normally until last week.

I’ve checked the audit logs and can see the transition attempts are being recorded, but they’re failing silently without error messages. The workflow service cache might need attention, but I’m not sure how to properly clear it without affecting other processes.

Has anyone encountered similar workflow state transition failures? Any guidance on troubleshooting the state machine configuration or cache management would be greatly appreciated.

2

Thanks for the suggestions. I checked the transition conditions and they look correct. The manager role mapping is also intact. I found some exceptions in the application logs related to cache timeouts, which supports the cache corruption theory.

Before I restart the workflow service, what’s the safest way to do this without impacting other active workflows?

3

I’d also recommend checking the workflow transition history table directly if you have database access. Sometimes the state machine gets out of sync with the actual workflow instance state.


SELECT workflow_id, current_state, target_state, transition_date, error_code
FROM workflow_transitions
WHERE workflow_type = 'SupplierOnboarding'
ORDER BY transition_date DESC;

This query helped us identify that transitions were attempting to move to a state that no longer existed in our configuration after a recent update.

4

I’ve seen this exact behavior before. First thing to check - go to Admin > Workflow Configuration and verify the transition conditions for the manager approval state. Sometimes a recent configuration change can inadvertently add a condition that’s not being met.

Also, check if the manager role mapping is still intact. Navigate to Admin > Security > Roles and confirm that the managers are still assigned to the correct role group that has workflow approval permissions.

5

The silent failures in audit logs are a red flag. Check your ETQ application logs (not just audit logs) for any Java exceptions. In our environment, we discovered that workflow service cache corruption was causing similar issues. The cache wasn’t invalidating properly after a system update.


// Check workflow service status
WorkflowService.getStatus()
WorkflowCache.validateIntegrity()
// Look for stale cache entries

You might need to restart the workflow service or clear the cache through the admin console. Be careful though - coordinate with your team first.