Investing in Traceability

Over the past four blogs we have highlighted what traceability is, why it’s important, who needs it, and how to select and implement a traceability system. This final blog in our series covers how investing in a traceability system is an investment that reaches far beyond traceability.

If a food processor’s goal is to simply achieve traceability, that goal is too small. Traceability isn’t just a mandate to adhere to, but it is an investment opportunity. Too often food processing companies hear the traceability mandate coming from either governing bodies or large food retailers and they act to simply meet the requirement without ever seeing the opportunity in front of them. Food traceability and good recall management capabilities are the byproduct of a quality plant manufacturing execution system (MES) and warehouse management system (WMS). These two systems combined not only provide traceability for the plant, but they can help processors grow their business, streamline their production, eliminate their inefficiencies, and expand their product sales. This blog article shows what sort of ROI a plant can expect from investing in traceability. 

Miss some of our Recall Management blog series? Checkout the first blog in this series!

Streamline Production

Traceability systems help streamline production by centralizing production control. They provide a single place to create and manage production orders, product files, product tare weights, and label formats. Production orders can be managed and sent down to the plant-floor with insight into production goals and packaging line performance. Assign multiple lines to produce against the same order to decrease production times. Reduce production costs by automating production lines with operator free weighing and labeling solutions. Plant MES systems also provide insight into production with production reporting. This gives plant management visibility into overall production throughput and efficiency.

Eliminate Inefficiencies

Investing in traceability enables a plant to create processes and enforce those processes with recipe and process control. By strengthening a plant’s process control production outputs become more consistent, waste is reduced, and product quality is increased reducing QA effort. Eliminate production waste by reweighing and labeling unused product returning from WIP back into inventory. Reduce product giveaway by setting tight parameters around standard weight production. Track orders from the time they are entered into the system through the entire order fulfillment process to shipping.

Expand Product Sales

Traceability systems will allow sales teams to see exactly what products are available to be sold in real-time. Management can view trending sales reports that highlight which product sales are expanding versus what products are losing popularity. Production planners can see what products customers regularly purchase to ensure product is available when needed. With detailed inventory reporting the sales team can sell the oldest product in inventory first to reduce inventory waste.

Product Costing

Production facilities can have a firm grasp on the production costs associated with each PLU they produce. This is because an effective plant MES and WMS system will provide them with complete visibility into the cost of purchased outside goods, WIP processes, and labor costs. This enables processors to reduce their overall production costs and improve their profitability starting at the plant-floor. This also helps provide insight into the overall cost and value of their current inventory stock.

Partner with Carlisle Technology!

This five-part series has covered one of the most important topics in food processing and distribution industry, which is traceability and recall management. By effectively managing recalls, companies can ensure food safety, reduce business risks and avoid expensive lawsuits. Traceability solutions play a central role in managing recalls. Plant wide traceability is achieved through implementing purpose built and proven MES and WMS solutions. For over 30 years, food processing companies in North America have been leveraging Carlisle Technology’s MES and WMS solutions to achieve traceability and improve plant productivity. Carlisle’s team is experienced in designing, developing, implementing and supporting plant wide traceability and productivity solutions. Carlisle’s technical experts have successfully configured software and hardware solutions to enhance plant operations and profitability.

Carlisle Technology’s Plant Productivity and Traceability Suite

Symphony is Carlisle Technology’s plant productivity and traceability software suite. With a modular design, Symphony was built to expand as a customer’s needs grow. Control plant floor production by managing product files, label formats, and product tare weights. Collect Data from the plant floor and get insight into production, productivity, and traceability. Streamline shipping, receiving and order picking with Symphony’s Warehouse Management System. Symphony combines rugged plant-floor data collection (MES) with fast and reliable warehouse management software to give users a 360-degree view of their entire operation. Key features of Symphony include:

• Complete traceability from supplier to customer
• End-to-end WIP tracking including recipe-based production
• Detailed inventory management (FIFO, holds, locations and warehouses)
• Centralized product and label management
• Sales orders, purchase orders, product costing, and invoicing
• Price list management
• Automatically collect data from scales, scanners and mobile devices
• Reports: sales, inventory, production margins, and yields
• Integration with ERP and Accounting systems

Written by: Andy Cumpton, Sales and Marketing – Carlisle Technology