Tracking and Tracing

Why tracking and tracing?

To determine precisely where goods come from, where they are right now and where they were ultimately shipped to, a company needs to set up a tracking and tracing system. In practice, tracking and tracing information can be of crucial importance and save you a lot of money. For some companies it is even mandatory (General Food Law, BRC, HACCP, IFS, Pharma).

Product recall

For example, when something unexpectedly turns out to be wrong with your products and you have to recall them from the market. This need not be caused by your own production; it can also happen when one of your suppliers has problems with its products. At that moment you must have the necessary information, so that you only have to withdraw a limited number of products from the market. If you do not have the right information about where these products ended up, you will have to recall a much larger number of products as a precaution. The costs of this can run very high.

In a recall it is essential to be able to trace exactly which raw materials you processed into which end products and to which customers these were sold. You can supplement this information with the employees who worked on the products, processing times and which process variables, such as temperature, pressure or active recipe, were applied. This information is not only necessary for recalls, but also helps you gain insight into your own processes and offers starting points for improvement.

Product tracking

Essential to product tracking is the use of unique serial numbers and/or batch numbers and adequate registration of them throughout the entire chain.

Registration by means of barcode scanning is efficient and reliable. Registering the unique product number, time, location, employee and other process parameters enables extensive reporting that not only fulfils the tracking and tracing obligation, but also provides insight into process improvements.