Manufacturers Face Traceability Requirements

Manufacturing companies are under more and more pressure to be able to track component items from their original receipt from the vendor to the finished products that they produce. Whether mandated by the government, customers, third-party auditors or quality standards such as ISO (International Standards Organization), the ability to track and trace products is becoming increasingly important.

Whether required by an external regulatory body or a customer, you may need to be able to:

• Look forward to determine what items were produced from a specific control number and follow the control number through multiple levels of the bill of material to shipment to the customer.

• Look backward from a specific end item to the components used to produce it, tracing components items through multiple levels of the bill of material to the actual components received from the vendor.

In other words, you need to be able to answer these questions:

• Where did it come from? This is the ability to identify the source of raw materials.

• Where did it go? This is the ability to identify the final destination an item.

PowerShift provides the complete history of serial- and lot-controlled items from the purchase of components through the manufacturing process to their shipment to a customer. If you need to know details about a particular lot of a purchased item, you can identify where it is used in work-in-process, in finished goods still in inventory, as well as in all the shipped products in which it was included. If a customer reports an issue with a controlled end item, you can trace its origin back to the purchased parts that created it.

Lot tracking features are standard in PowerShift; no external or add-on modules are required. PowerShift’s lot/serial trace programs include:

• MOLQ – Work Order Lot/Serial Trace
• MLQ – Multi-Level Lot Tracing Inquiry
• SNQ – Control Number Inquiry

These programs can be run from the menu. Tracking information can also be accessed via drills when you need to know where a part came from or where a part went.

Beyond meeting mandated tracking and tracing requirements, lot control can provide more accurate inventory valuation and product costing (i.e., costs are maintained by lot). If you’re not using PowerShift’s lot tracking features and need to start, contact the Qantel Helpdesk or call us at 630.300.6997.