Batch tracing with SuPCIS-L8 - then transparency in the supply chain will also work!

Who doesn't know them, the sentences when it comes to: "The wrong ingredient got into the muesli mix! The Max Mustermann company is recalling all packs - the product is inedible" or "For inexplicable reasons, an important active ingredient is missing from the headache tablets. The entire 041021 stock must be withdrawn from circulation immediately because the tablets do not work properly." These are example sentences that immediately prompt the manufacturers or suppliers to act. Because at this moment it is all about one thing: all contact points must be informed about the quality defect as quickly as possible. The only question is, where do I get the information about which products are actually affected without having to recall all deliveries? This is exactly where batch tracing comes into play.

For a large number of companies in the manufacturing industry, batch traceability is already an important part of their production processes. In sectors such as the food and pharmaceutical industries, it is even set by law and regulated by Regulation (EC) No 178/2002. But apart from this, the same applies to many other industries or products: the goal is to make the supply chain of products as transparent as possible and in this way to be able to trace them without gaps. Our SuPCIS-L8 warehouse management software provides functional support for batch management. In the master data, it is specified which products must be managed with a batch number, i.e.: "Is the product subject to batch numbering? In the case that the product is marked as "subject to batch numbering", the employee is already requested to enter the batch number at goods receipt. In this way, it is also known within the warehouse in which storage bin which batch is located. The entry can be made manually, by scanning or by RFID and is then registered in the system. Depending on the product, there are different patterns and variants of batch numbers. To illustrate this with an example, batch 202101, for example, is composed of the year and the calendar week. Other numbers consist of a ten- or twelve-digit sequence. Therefore, it is possible to store in the system what the batch number of an article should look like. However, one thing is the same in every case: stored in the warehouse management system, the number enables the exact allocation to the entire batch.

The recorded batch number then remains unchanged for all goods movements - whether internally or during delivery to an external location - and is kept continuously. There is no mixing of different batches in one storage location. For outbound deliveries, the recorded batches can also be reported back to the ERP system for each delivery. In this way, the batch can be traced at any time.

Through batch management with SuPCIS-L8 and the associated possibility of tracing batches, users have greater control over the entire process, a transparent supply chain and increased quality management. In addition, in the event of a quality defect, the economic damage can be kept as low as possible. This is because the entire production quantity does not have to be recalled in this context, but "only" the products from the defective batch.

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