Draft for Tamir's review. Not published.
Find where the trace broke
Trace ten recent lots backward and forward, and record the exact step where each trace fails. Classify each break as a process gap, a data entry gap or a system limitation. After a slow recall, reconstruct the timeline and find where the days went.
Look for paper records, missing lot links at a few steps and nobody owning the trace. If key suppliers send incomplete batch records, replacing the software won't help. Set record standards in supplier agreements, and decide who approves or rejects incomplete batches.
Decide fix, replace or wait on evidence
Check what the original contract promised and whether the gaps fall inside it. Compare the fix with a replacement that includes retraining the floor, because that is where most of the cost sits.
When customers ask for per-product data, answer the first requests with what you have. That shows which data exists. Buy a platform when the data exists and the requests recur.
Depending on your seat
If you're on the board and a retailer audit is coming, require a plan to the audit date, plant by plant, against what the retailer will test. Where the system isn't ready, require a documented interim process and a mock audit first.
If management says a system makes products fully traceable, ask to see a complete trace of a complex product across suppliers and distribution, with its exceptions. Have quality owners confirm what the exercise covers and excludes.
What to check before you decide
- Trace ten recent lots backward and forward, and record where each trace fails.
- Classify each break as a process gap, a data entry gap or a system limitation.
- List the production points where lot identity is lost or recorded on paper.
- List the fields missing from rejected supplier submissions, and check whether supplier agreements require them.
- Ask your largest customers and retailers what trace time and detail they expect.
- Fix recording at the breaking points and run a timed mock recall.
- Only then compare systems on how they hold and query the links you capture.
Questions people ask
Our traceability program stalled and a major retailer audit is coming, what should the board require from management?
Require a plan to the audit date that covers what the retailer will test, plant by plant, with what is done, what will be done and what will be shown as a documented interim process. Auditors accept honest interim controls over unfinished systems. It depends on what the retailer's audit covers and on which plants are closest to ready.
What evidence should the board require for a food traceability assurance claim?
Require evidence of a complete, representative traceability path and its exceptions. Reliance depends on supplier records, production transformations, distribution links, and the scope confirmed by quality owners.
Customers want traceability and sustainability data per product and IT says we need a new platform, do we?
Answer the two customers first with what you have, because that shows which data exists and which does not; most of the gap is usually in collection on the floor, which no platform fixes. Decide on a platform when the requests repeat and the data exists. It depends on how many customers will ask, what format they require and how much of the data your current systems already hold.
A recall took us three days to trace and now vendors pitch traceability systems, what should I actually fix?
Walk the recall back and find where the three days went: usually in paper records, missing lot links at a few steps, and nobody owning the trace. Fix the recording at those steps and the ownership, then buy a system that holds the links you now capture. It depends on where your trace broke and on what your retailers require in a trace.
Should we replace traceability software when suppliers cannot provide usable records?
Separate supplier evidence problems from software capability. Progress depends on accepted record standards, commercial influence, and a workable exception process for incomplete submissions.
Traceability system failed a customer audit a year after go live, fix it or replace it?
First find where the trace broke, because most failures sit in how the floor records data rather than in the software. Test ten lots end to end yourself and locate each break. It depends on whether the breaks come from missing scans and manual steps or from the system's data model.
How I can help with this decision
- Ask or talk (Free)
- I give my view on where traces usually break, and whether what you describe sounds like a process, supplier or software gap.
- Review (Pay if it was worth it)
- I write an independent post-mortem on the failed trace or recall and an assessment of fixing versus replacing. I recommend process fixes, whether and when to buy, and the evidence the audit will need.
- Retain (When it makes sense)
- I stay close through the remediation to review mock recall results and fixes against the lots that failed.