chain – where the best ingredients
are coming from and which suppliers
always deliver on time.
The first step to traceability is labeling.
While most farms are not required to
label each piece of produce they sell
per the Federal Food, Drug and Cos-
metic Act, manufacturers should work
with farms that label each container
that leaves the farm. In addition, if the
farm uses barcoding technology in its
labeling process, it makes traceability
more effective and efficient.
Once these materials arrive at the
facility and are used to manufacture
the products, they can be scanned and
documented. This information, along
with information that is gathered
during the manufacturing process, is
then imported into the manufacturer’s
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
system where data is viewable in near
real-time.
Meeting in the Middle
Historically, manufacturers would
use a warehouse management system
(WMS) and/or a separate warehouse
control system (WCS) to manage
warehouse inventories. These two
separate systems make it difficult for
manufacturers to integrate warehouse
inventory tracking with the supply
chain activities they were already
tracking, including product delivery
and on-shelf availability at the store
level. By connecting a single WES to
systems both upstream and down-
stream, manufacturers are able to
obtain a complete view of their supply
chain.
With a WES and integrated AS/RS,
manufacturers have the ability to
obtain real-time insight into their
inbound and outbound inventory,
including when a shipment arrives,
departs, and where it is going. There-
fore, if a product is recalled, it is easy
to look into the system and quickly
identify the batch containing the
faulty goods, pinpoint their departure
time and destination, and pull all
items from that batch off the shelves.
By identifying and pulling the exact
batch, manufacturers do not waste
valuable time and money remov-
ing every product from stores in an
attempt to remove all contaminated
items. And, with reliable data, manu-
facturers can prove compliance with
any relevant safety regulations and
confidently assure consumers that
they have taken fast and thorough ac-
tion to withdraw all affected products.
In Transit
Using barcode labeling, manufac-
turers can track products as they are
leaving the warehouse as each pallet
is scanned and placed onto a truck for
delivery. Advances in RFID tech-
nology and telematic systems allow
manufacturers to record every move-
ment of each product. Combined with
the information gathered by the WES,
manufacturers are able to trace:
•
•
What time the product went into/
out of specific controlled environ-
ments.
What time and for how many
minutes the product was out of
the controlled environment.
What time the product was load-
ed onto the vehicle for delivery.
By providing a high-degree of prod-
uct traceability, an integrated WES
•
can help manufacturers discover and
act upon issues that have caused the
recall sooner. Earlier detection often FT_3.75x4.875.pdf
allows manufacturers to
better understand what
product needs to be
recalled, thus potentially
reducing the scope of the
recall effort by targeting
only affected inventory.
For example, if a man-
ufacturer ran a lot of a
single product on a pro-
duction line at midnight
and later determined
that there was a problem
with those products, the
manufacturing system
can communicate to the
WES and locate all of
the products that were
produced from that
particular line during
the specified timeframe.
The quicker the response
time, the greater the
chance that contaminat-
ed or unmet products
never leave the facility
and reach store shelves.
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