The traceability systems play a key role in further quality management, a greater efficiency in production processes or better customer service. The control and monitoring of products in any company is an important aspect of the essential today. One of the sectors where the most exhaustive traceability systems are carried out is in the food industry.
What is traceability?
The
traceability
is the term used to define all the actions that are taken to carry out the control and monitoring of the
control and traceability
of a product during all stages of the production process..
The
International Organization for Standardization
(ISO 9001:2008) defines traceability as «tthe property of the result of a measurement or the value of a standard where it can be related to specified references, usually national or international standards, through a continuous chain of comparisons all with specified uncertainties.«
All the necessary information is obtained by means of a
traceability system
. These systems will have to be composed of
four elements
:
Identification system
Identification system: either of the products individually or grouped in batches.
System for data capture
Data collection system: it is essential to collect all the information about raw materials, factories and warehouses.
Data management software
It is important that all the information that has been obtained is correctly managed and administered. On
Cedesa
we have software with which to carry out this task correctly.
Data to be recorded
Once the data has been accumulated, it will be necessary to register it.
Traceability Plan
In order to implement a traceability system, the first step is to draw up a Traceability P
traceability plan
. In this pn the following table, all the criteria to be used for product trajectory tracking are collected. to follow the trajectory of the products.
How to implement a Traceability Plan
In order to correctly implement a Traceability Plan, the first step is to make a preliminary analysis of the
prior analysis of the file systems
used by suppliers and customers, as well as those of the company itself. This is done to check what information can be used and to avoid so unnecessary efforts.
When implementing the plan, it should be divided into two parts and, in general, the following information should be collected:
Traceability Program:
in this first part, all the necessary actions to correctly identify
necessary actions to correctly identify and trace the
the products made from the raw materials, intermediate products, if any, production data and final recipients. Specifically, it shall:
- Define the
scope of application
of traceability. - Define the
criteria for grouping
products in relation to traceability. - Define the
identification system
of the products. - Develop the
mechanisms for checking the system
by the company.
- Create
communication mechanisms
in the company. - Establish the
mechanisms for the location, immobilization
and, if necessary,
withdrawal from
l market
of the products. - Select the tools to be used for the identification of
identification
of the products.
Registers
In the second part, the results are
the results of the traceability plan
of having implemented the traceability plan.
The traceability to be carried out will be given from
two areas
:
Internal traceabilityis the one that takes place within the company. It consists of tracking each product within the company, regardless of whether new products are produced or not. In addition, the products obtained from suppliers should be linked to the processes they have undergone and to the final products received by customers.
External traceabilityare the extra data that are added to the internal traceability. It is the exchange of information between the different parts of the supply chain.
