In various industries, such as food, pharmaceutical, machinery and alike, strict standards and ever-increasing customer demands demand that the traceability system of production activities has to be more and more accurate and reliable. This means that for each product and process, informations about materials, work tasks, production time, employee activities, etc. are recorded in real time. Only in this way can we track the products from start to finish, i.e. from the moment the raw materials enter production to the moment the finished products are shipped. And even longer.
In general, traceability can be defined as the ability to trace every piece of the mosaic of product manufacturing throughout the entire production process.
Why do we need to introduce a traceability system in our production?
Because the benefits of a traceability system for manufacturing are enormous. Can you imagine having data on the traceability of all materials and raw materials, employee activities, work tasks, time consumption, genealogy and other process indicators in one place? And that you can access them from anywhere, anytime? And that's why you react faster to possible irregularities? Which ultimately leads to higher production efficiency and lower operating costs?
Yes, it is traceability together with the genealogy of products that significantly affects the higher quality of products. Imagine that you are the CEO of a company that produces plastic products. One day you find out that a certain batch of products is defective. In this case, it is useful to have insight into their entire production process. An error may have occurred due to a particular machine not working. On the other hand, all defective products may contain certain components from the same supplier. There are a lot of possibilities and the traceability system allows you to detect and determine such irregularities in the shortest possible time.
The key advantages of the traceability system are:
- Real-time management of production cycles and adequate reaction to changes
- High product compliance with regulations and customer requirements
- Better management of work tasks and resources
- Better production flexibility
- Greater customer satisfaction
- Lowering production costs
- Greater growth and competitiveness of the company
In addition to the advantages already mentioned, product traceability also improves after-sales activities, which allows the company to follow trends in the industry. Since there is always a certain % of products that do not work properly for various reasons, it is traceability that makes it easier for us to find errors in individual products and to discover possible causes for the failure of a large number of products. A detailed analysis of the history of events leads to faster management of complaints, which, last but not least, greatly increases customer confidence.
It is quite clear that the traceability system is no longer an obligation for companies only in terms of prescribed standards, but also ensures better product safety.
