The Bioterrorism Act sets the rules for how to respond to a recall.  Even without the legislation in place, it is plain to see that information on inwards goods receipting, warehousing and manufacturing processes and outbound shipping processes is key to creating a safe and non-recallable product.  Everyone hopes to have deep distribution channels for their product. The right software can help you manage and protect them.

ERP Software

Is Your ERP System Recall Ready? (Part 3)

It would be wonderful to know that your product was being purchased and consumed around the globe. But broader distribution means more product movement. The further your product or its components move, the bigger the risks and greater the liabilities are to you and your product.

Confidence in your product cannot be maintained unless you are aware of the ingredients or components used for each product, the source of each ingredient or component and the eventual destination of the product. To not just be compliant but confident, you must be able to extract this information as accurately and rapidly as required.

Once data is captured, you need to be able to access it quickly and effectively.

In response to the Bioterrorism Act, systems aiding recall must include a number of operational benefits for food and beverage companies, including:

• enhanced capabilities of products requiring recall;


• enhanced costing of lot items produced from work orders;


• improved data integrity through consolidating storage of lot details within a central location;


• location tracking and FIFO costing that can work independently;


• simplification of the picking process;


• improvements in files structures:


• higher visibility of lot movements, providing greater traceability;  more readily available auditing; and – clearer presentation of product information.

Advanced ERP systems for food and beverage makers include considerable lot tracking information. They also include user-defined fields that can be used to ensure that localization requirements can be delivered without impacting the core code.  First-rate lot tracking is critical to ensure your product’s safety,  real-time movement provides the necessary accuracy and timely access to records to support your compliance efforts with confidence. Most importantly, lot tracking is fully integrated across Lot Master, Picking, Receiving, Warehouse, Costing and Tally records to comprehensively track and trace inventory movements within your system.

How you handle the recall (crisis management) and how timely you respond can be the difference from being the role model or losing market share and potentially be displaced from the market. Today information can be disseminated globally and instantaneously. This means news regarding a glitch or product recall not only reaches more people, it does so at a much greater speed.

Though a product recall is never desired, an effective and well-managed response can mitigate liabilities, protect the brand and turn the crisis into an opportunity. Traceability. Implement a lot tracking system that provides integration with your key business processes and systems and that enables forward and backward tracking so that you can determine the source of the problem to the lot level. visibility. Assess your key business processes and IT systems and ensure they are unlocking the critical information that management requires to make faster, more effective decisions regarding product crises.