If you work in a highly regulated industry making or distributing safety or health products, your business demands lot traceability. Compliance with traceability rules means you need to be equipped to respond at lightning speed to any defect or hazard, down to the level of each individual part or ingredient.
Traceability is especially challenging because problems can occur at any point along your supply chain – from R&D through materials handling to assembly to shipping.
Broken or slow processes can be particularly costly – and even lethal – for suppliers of food, pharmaceuticals, electronics and high-tech, aerospace and automotive products, medical devices and chemicals. And even in less-regulated industries, you still need to be able to efficiently manage returns and customer complaints for continuous quality improvement.
That’s why you need a modern ERP solution designed to give you full forward and backward lot traceability of your products and raw materials. SYSPRO ERP Software enables you to track quality data on both products and their components from purchasing through inspection, manufacturing, stocking and sales. As you evaluate your own QA and compliance processes, ask yourself whether your current software provides the below.
Manufacturing traceability
SYSPRO ERP Software empowers your team with full visibility to the origins, build and customer destination of products and batches. For an industry like food, lot traceability is a must to comply with Food Safety Modernisation Act (FSMA) and Safe Quality Food (SQF) standards.
But lot and part tracking is important in every industry, and not just for compliance. When your business can rapidly trace and analyse the source of any defects and resolve issues fast, you can protect your customers and your brand reputation.
Powerful search capabilities
SYSPRO ERP includes a powerful query engine that enables you to quickly find and view current and archived lot data from a number of different areas of the business. Filter data based on customers, suppliers or jobs – or search upward and downward by stock code, lot/serial number or transaction type. This enables you to isolate and respond quickly to quality issues or product recalls.
Engineering change control (ECC)
Make sure you know who changed what along the R&D process with built-in ECC. SYSPRO ERP Software offers user security control and an audit trail can help you mitigate liability in case of product quality issues. In addition, by using e-signatures and creating documentation automatically, you can enforce compliance.
Shelf life management
If you sell perishables, SYSPRO enables you to manage product expiration dates on the shelf, as well as storage and transport compatibility codes. You can also include expiry dates in materials requirements planning calculations to reduce waste. This is key for compliance with food safety rules.
Quality tracking
Purchased goods inspection enables you to control the quality of delivered raw materials, while the work-in-progress inspection facilities enable quality validation and grading of manufactured products. SYSPRO ERP also enables you to associate documentation to lots with applicable certifications, specifications and quality records. With barcoding and serial number capabilities, you can also manage more carefully.
Supplier performance reporting
SYSPRO ERP provides robust reporting on supplier performance along cost, quality, sustainability and other measures. Features such as approved supplier lists and supplier scorecards make it easier for you to select the best partners.
Return merchandise authorisation
Landed cost tracking
Though not required for regulatory compliance, it can be important to track and gain visibility into the actual cost of imported goods through shipment trading. This is important in low-margin products because not knowing these costs can cause you to lose money when selling the product. With landed cost tracking, you can track shipments and estimate total costs more reliably.
