What is Traceability and How to Implement it in Manufacturing?

Traceability is the current need of the hour. With counterfeiters rising in every corner of the neighborhood, a proper traceability system for manufacturing can help in keeping them at bay. Though several technologies are emerging to strike out duplicate products, traceability can kill two birds with one stone. How? A proper end-to-end traceability system will help you keep track of all ongoing supply chains and alert you in case of any mishaps.

What is Traceability?

Before understanding the various norms and benefits of using atraceability system for manufacturing, it is essential to understand its meaning. Tracking or documenting every single step of a supply chain, from sourcing raw materials until the product reaches the end consumer, is known as traceability.

In simple terms, traceability gives you the ability to have a record of everything that goes on in your supply chain. The process of traceability in manufacturing helps you get proper inventory details, time taken in each step, information about the suppliers and distributors.

In the era of digitization, where anyone can make a duplicate of your product or disturb the supply chain by adding counterfeit materials, traceability can save your brand’s reputation.

Moreover, end-to-end traceability also helps in gaining customer loyalty. How? As customers become more aware of the ingredients included in the products, a visual display of the raw materials or ingredients and the process will give them a clear view of the system and make them loyal to the brand.

Benefits of Traceability

When we talk about traceability, we usually think about the cost it would take to implement a new system, train employees, and follow the steps after that. But, enabling aproduction tracking system is a one-time investment that will provide lifetime benefits. Here are some advantages that you can get from the above process.

1. In-depth Analysis

When you enable a full-fledged end-to-end production traceability system, you get details of every step, including the amount of waste generated during the process. You can use these details to analyze the entire process in-depth and find out major problems.

Let’s say, a part of your manufacturing workshop is not providing results like it used to. This might be due to lack of good machinery, resource deficit, or any other reason.

How to find out the exact problem that is causing such inefficiency?

With a strong traceability system, you can find the source of the problem and provide adequate solutions that will increase your workshop’s efficiency.

2. Constant Growth

As human beings, we need to upskill ourselves constantly to improve and stay ahead of competition. The same goes for organizations as well. With new startups emerging every day, fueled by young and enthusiastic minds, it is becoming difficult to keep your position stable in the market.

However, if you invest in a good production traceability system, it might help you stay up-to-date with changing times and run with the young minds of today. How?

Well, as production tracking systems are known to provide real-time data, you can use it to understand the ever-changing market and making changes accordingly. It will also help you understand the exact things your company needs to grow.

With a good traceability system at hand, you can easily strike out your rivals and emerging startups in your genre, within seconds.

3. Proper Planning

Yes, you can plan out your entire month’s production strategy with a proper production traceability system!

How? As production traceability systems provide you with ongoing data on all your running supply chains, you get an approximate idea on how much time it will take for each of them to reach the final destination, number of products that each chain can produce, and other important data.

Based on this, you can plan out a rough draft for the upcoming month, finalize the budget, and start working.

Moreover, a good traceability system can also help you cut down on unnecessary expenses. They state the exact amount of ingredients you need in each step, thus eliminating the need of buying extra items.

4. Prevent Fraud & Helps in Vendor Claims

Defective products arriving in markets have become daily news. The salt to the wound is that these companies are slandered mercilessly throughout the internet, which ultimately leads to complete shut down.

In such cases, the company has to bear losses and the bad brand reputation that comes with it.

But with end-to-end traceability, such things can be avoided. In case of wrong raw materials, companies can check the vendors responsible for selling them and hold them accountable. Besides, if there are some defective pieces, the company can quickly sort out the specific unit or batch number and recall the particular batch, thus reducing expenses and saving the brand name.

How to Implement Traceability in Manufacturing?

When implementing a traceability system for manufacturing, there are four basic steps that one needs to follow.

1. Selecting the Marking Technology Fit for the Product

The first thing a company needs to decide is the type of marking technology for production tracking. Simply put, you need to think which method will help you get proper results with accurate data.

There are tons of options to select from. You can go for RFID tags, QR codes, a mix of digital and physical lock system, and much more. It’s on you to select which technology will best match with your company’s requirements. Make sure that whatever technology you are using has proper anti-counterfeit features to protect your supply chains from illegal dealers.

2. Deciding the Type of Information

After finalizing the technology, you need to decide the information you want to put out in the traceability system. Like whether you want to include the product’s entire journey, or simply state the raw materials and important dates, or something else.

Once you have decided this, ask the developers to embed the information in the traceability system and run trial tests to see if it works properly or not.

3. Enable Digitalization for Accuracy

The reason why you should include digitalization in traceability is to double check and make sure that correct information is embedded on all products.

Besides, digitalization saves you from accidentally giving out confidential information to outsiders.

4. Connecting Entire Process with Software

The last step is to connect the entire process with software. By enabling proper track and trace software, you can easily view everything from the comfort of your desktop and make decisions accordingly. Besides, advanced software will give you immediate alerts in case there are mishaps or theft so that you can take necessary actions.

Traceability in manufacturing is essential in this changing atmosphere. Without proper track and trace solutions, companies will face difficulty in being up-to-date with advance technologies and fall into the trap of counterfeiters. With the help of a good production tracking system, organizations can easily maintain product quality, upgrade according to the changing trends, and keep their brand safe from counterfeiters.

If you wish to know more about traceability solutions and traceability in manufacturing, contact Sepio solutions at [email protected].