Food chain traceability supported by software

Food product traceability, or the ability to track, trace and locate unique products throughout a broad supply chain—from growers to raw ingredients to manufacturing to packaging to distribution to shipping to store to consumer—is critical should contamination occur that might cause harm to human (or animal) health.

Obviously, no food or beverage purveyor wants a consumer’s well being compromised by a tainted product. But the fragmented nature of the food supply chain can make a recall challenging. Without fast access to traceability data at a granular level, a manufacturer might decide it’s safer to issue a broader recall, pulling all potentially suspect products from shelves, or anywhere else in the supply chain, rather than just the impacted lots.

Such a drastic measure is costly, not only in time and waste, but also in image, says Dan Grimm, vice president of industry strategy at JDA. “Today, traceability is all about brand protection. In our 24-hour news cycle, product recalls get more visibility than they did 10 to 20 years ago,” he explains. “If a product recall hits the national news, and it can do significant damage to a company’s reputation and sales.”

Companies throughout the food supply chain recognize that it’s not a matter of will a recall occur, but when. For that reason, manufacturers are deploying the latest enterprise and warehouse management system (WMS) software solutions engineered with advanced functionality to target, locate and isolate impacted product in minutes—instead of hours—should a manufacturer issue a recall.

Software supports better traceability throughout the supply chain
There’s a lot of data to be captured about food in every category, from perishables with short shelf lives to processed foods that could reside in a pantry for years. A facility’s place in the supply chain often determines the types of information it records and stores.

The key is in maintaining a level of record keeping that will enable a company to most cost-effectively manage a recall, says Garrett Smith, director of system sales at viastore systems.

“Manufacturing tracks to the batch; distribution tracks down to the pallet level; retailers might break a pallet down and ship individual cases, so they track to the case level. Or, if they break a case down into individual piece picks, they track to the unit level,” Smith explains. “If each level knows precisely which items went where, the manufacturer can issue a recall specific to just those items, saving money and minimizing waste.”

Simply managing the volume of traceability data can be staggering, says JDA’s Grimm: “There can be hundreds of millions of records that companies need to maintain in order to track something from manufacture, through transportation, through a possible series of warehouses until it reaches a grocery retailer.”

Complicating matters is the potential variety of different systems storing sources of record at each point in the supply chain. Although data is captured, the responsibility for maintaining and archiving for a given period of time (shorter for perishables and longer for pantry products), accessing it quickly and easily can be complicated depending on the number of participants in any given supply chain.

To mitigate that complexity, manufacturers might require service partners to adopt the same technology, suggests Grimm. “For example, if a manufacturer outsources distribution to a third-party logistics provider (3PL), they might require the 3PL to use the same WMS. That enables the manufacturer to own the data across one cohesive system for easier visibility and tracking of products.”

Still, not every manufacturer can justify the investment in an enterprise-wide license. Understanding that, tier 1 WMS suppliers have developed robust interconnectivity functions that enable integration with a variety of disparate systems across the supply chain. Although in the past such functionality was an add-on, that’s no longer the case.

“Integration and portability of information from one application to another is a big component of traceability,” says Dave Williams, director of software solutions at Westfalia Technologies. “It used to be a piece that had to be added on to a host interface, but not any longer.

“Our warehouse execution system, Savanna.NET, captures and carries much of the batch data associated with growers or manufacturing, pairs this data with the lot data generated at processing time, and passes it directly through the storage and distribution systems, from packaging through transportation of the product,” Williams explains. “We can make parts of this information available downstream to the retailers if they want it.”

This increased level of data and detail means inventory can be searched by specific ingredient, as well as by stock keeping unit (SKU), universal product code (UPC), batch or lot level. A single source tier 1 WMS enables faster identification and location of impacted products. With the advent of retailer-issued membership incentive cards for shoppers, the impact of a recall can also be minimized.

“By tying manufacturing data to a retailer’s point-of-sale (POS) system, a recall might just entail an automated phone call to everyone who purchased an item, requesting it be returned to the store—instead of broadcasting it on the news,” Williams adds.

Other sources of traceability support
Additional sources of traceability information—as well as better means to control and lock down inventory should a contamination question arise—can be found in other handing systems beyond WMS.

“Automation is a great way to have traceability,” says viastore’s Smith.

“Within the four walls of a facility, automation hardware ensures the highest levels of accuracy by putting items in the correct storage location, for example,” he says. “Then, automation control software merges the hardware’s handling processes to locate items anywhere throughout the facility: whether they’re in a storage location or traveling on a conveyor to outbound shipping.”

That, says Smith, allows the system to locate and lock down any item to the unit level if necessary without manual searches.

Likewise, for operations using reusable plastic pallets, third-party management of those assets can yield valuable location information, says Bob Klimko, ORBIS’ director of marketing for food and beverage.

“As part of our managed pool solution for specific industries including food and beverage, ORBIS uses an information system called SmartTrak to manage fleets of assets to optimize their use in a supply chain. Traceability for food safety really fits into the tracking we do, because the system knows where the pallets are going and where they are coming from,” he explains.

“Although we’re using our software to manage our own assets, it’s absolutely applicable to product traceability, because SmartTrak can be set up to support those requirements,” adds Andy Dewitt, ORBIS’ director of customer solutions. “When SmartTrak is set up to support tracing, if a company experiences a product recall and some of the suspect items are on designated pallets, it would be very easy for us to support that recall and locate those specific pallets.”

Beyond recalls: Other track & trace software benefits
Traceability functionality in software also offers companies benefits beyond fast location of targeted inventory for recalls, says Chuck Fuerst, director of product strategy at HighJump. “The track-and-trace functions of a tier 1 WMS also enhance analytics and reporting by providing real-time intelligence to drive better inventory forecasting and more strategic operational decisions,” he says.

The level of traceability detail also helps companies better manage returns, Fuerst adds. “If a company sees the same item being repeatedly returned for the same reason, they can trace that back and provide information to suppliers about a quality issue,” he says. “Likewise, a retailer might use the data to determine where an item was purchased and when to verify the legitimacy of a return.”

Another advantage of advanced traceability functionality is the ability to ensure shelf consistency at all retail outlets, says Mark Dickinson, executive sales manager of automated systems at SSI Schaefer Systems International.

“For example, a retailer servicing 10,000 stores from one DC that receives daily shipments of bananas can evaluate the information that comes with them, including the day they were picked,” Dickinson explains. “That information allows the DC to send certain batches to certain stores based on pick date: The most recently picked bananas to stores on the longest delivery route, and the ripest bananas to the stores closest to your DC. That ensures that your customers at every location have the same product experience.”

Also, from a marketing and customer experience perspective, enhanced traceability means certain products, such as produce, can sport QR codes that invite purchasers to see precisely where and when their fruits or vegetables were picked. That functionality wouldn’t be possible without software, says Dickinson.

Companies mentioned in this article
HighJump, highjump.com
JDA, jda.com
ORBIS, orbiscorporation.com
SSI Schaefer Systems International, ssi-schaefer.us
viastore systems, us.viastore.com
Westfalia Technologies, westfaliausa.com