Technology can be your best friend

Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com Technology can be your best friend A Food Manufacturer’s guide to ensuring your ERP system has ‘farm to fork’ traceability built right into the software Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com Table of ConTenTs Introduction ..................................................................................................................................1 Not All Product Tracing Systems Are Equal...............................................................................1 Prevention-And-Proof ..................................................................................................................2 The Layers of Product Tracking ..................................................................................................3 How Deep is Your Level of Detail? ..............................................................................................3 Lot Tracking for Raw Materials ...................................................................................................4 Lot Tracking by Shift ....................................................................................................................4 Allergen Tracking .........................................................................................................................4 Tracking Goods from Other Countries........................................................................................4 How Fast Are Your Product Recalls? ..........................................................................................5 Future-Looking: Qr Codes for Tracking .....................................................................................5 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................6 About JustFooderp .......................................................................................................................6 Additional Resources ...................................................................................................................7 1Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com InTroduCTIon In this day and age of global product recalls, and tightening compliance regulations from mass-merchandise retail customers as well as government, lot tracking is more important than ever. Every segment of the food industry is fraught with certification and standards that require third-party audits into your traceability processes, the comprehensive nature of traceability across your supply chain, and the speed of your product recalls; such organizations as: • Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) • Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI 2000) • Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) • BRC Global Standards • GS1 Global Traceability Standard which is used in the Produce Traceability Initiative specific to the fresh produce industry in the U.S. The GS1 System of standards is the most widely used such system in the world; about 1.5 million businesses use GS1 standards. • Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) – established by FDA to examine the microbiology aspect of food safety; recommends that governments set benchmarks and allow industries to adapt. • Supply Chain Council (SCC) – organization that targets improvements in supply chain management Talk to any food manufacturer or food distributor who’s had to participate in a large product recall, and they will tell you they wish they had had more detailed traceability processes in place before the recall. NOT ALL PRODUCT TRACING SYSTEMS ARE EQUAL Many food processors will have product tracing systems in place, but not all of these systems are created equal; they will vary depending on: • How much information the system records. • How far forwards and backwards in the supply chain the system tracks. • The precision with which a system can pinpoint a product’s movement. • What technologies are used to maintain records. The business systems you purchase – including your Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) system – should have the functionality for accurate product traceability and product recall built in. Many food processors will have product tracing systems in place, but not all of these systems are created equal 2Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com PREVENTION-AND-PROOF The old adage, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ is certainly applicable to product traceability. In fact, the FDA, lacking resources to inspect the millions of shipments of food into the U.S. each year, has shifted its emphasis from inspection to prevention. A holistic view of food safety will incorporate prevention-and-proof as well as the traditional record-and-response approach to lot tracking and recall. The prevention-and- proof approach includes features such as: 1. Built-in quality procedures that can enforce quality audits at various stages of material movement, from receiving through to shipping. All relevant QC test data is recorded and retained permanently. 2. A preventive maintenance module that ensures proper maintenance of plant facilities and production equipment. 3. Inventory picking based on “first expiry-first out” principals, enforcing inventory picking through directed or suggested methods. 4. Inventory expiry analysis to show raw materials and finished goods that are expired, or nearing expiration, to help enforce rules from customers. 5. Tracking the nutrients in an item, and comparing those nutrients against the government’s recommended values. 6. Full food safety reporting and document retention to satisfy the most thorough external audits. 7. Dates of receiving, movement, transfers, picking, staging and production recorded. 8. Allergens recorded. 9. Lot number changes recorded as the product is produced; while tracking each lot number of stated ingredients. 10. All relevant tests, production activities, inspections, incubations, and all scheduled processes applied to each batch, are recorded. 11. Finished good shipment data is recorded, including lot number of finished good product and packaging, name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, transportation carrier, bill of lading number, mode of transportation, date of delivery and COA if applicable. 12. A complaint management system for handling, investigating and resolving complaints. 3Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com THE LAYERS OF PRODUCT TRACKING The various types of product tracking can be thought of in terms of layers; the more layers you have, the easier it will be to peel back and do an internal or external audit to see where the bad product came from and where it went to. Within the JustFoodERP system, you have the ability to track an item at several levels of detail: • Tracking at the Item level: “Item” information only entered into your system essentially means no traceability, because every transaction for that item will look similar. • Tracking at the lot level: “Lot” refers to multiple units of an item tied together via a lot number. • Tracking at the serial number level: Every single unit of an item will have a unique serial number tied to it. This is less common than the first two levels (Item and Lot) but Serial Number is important if, for example, you need to record the catch weight of every case of an item, as some food companies must. • Tracking at the Container level: JustFoodERP has added another level called “Container Tracking.” This is more of an internal tracking method where you can track a group of items as part of a single “container number.” It allows you to use a single container number to locate a group of inventory in your warehouse as opposed to having to look up every individual item/lot/serial number. (This is also known as ‘license plating” in the business.) HOW DEEP IS YOUR LEVEL OF DETAIL? The ability to easily see the entire history of the item/lot /serial number within a single interface is a critical component of your ERP system. Why? Here are a few instances: 1. Where and How: From the time an item/lot/serial is purchased or produced, through to the time it leaves your inventory, every transaction is tracked in a single place in the system and can be reported on; no transaction is lost. Internal transactions – such as moving inventory around in a warehouse – are included. 2. Who: You can see who made the transaction in case you must make inquiries about the transaction. 3. When: JustFoodERP includes the ability for all inventory transactions to be time- stamped – not just the date, but the exact hour and second the transaction happened! Within the JustfooderP system, you have the ability to track an item at several levels of detail 4Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com LOT TRACKING FOR RAW MATERIALS It’s highly recommended to assign (at least) the level of lot numbering to the items you purchase as raw materials, even if the vendor doesn’t provide one to you. This is important because if a vendor tells you there’s an issue with the product you received from them last week, without that lot traceability you would have to guess at which product it was – to the ERP system, everything you ever got from that vendor looks the same! Lot numbering would differentiate their materials. LOT TRACKING BY SHIFT Let’s say you are doing lot tracking at your facility, but the lot numbers are only changed at the start of each workday; after all, you are producing the same item all day long. But – you have three production shifts a day for that item. If you have to do a recall, you’ll look at traceability by lot number, which means potentially you have to look at an entire day’s worth of inventory. And you may have to put out a recall for the entire day’s worth of inventory. However, if the lot number was changed at the start of each shift, if a recall happens, you can limit the trace to the exact shift that produced the item. That may also mean you have to recall less product. Savings in time, labor and money – a win all the way around. ALLERGEN TRACKING If you are manufacturing food using ingredients or products that contain allergens, your lot tracking can be even more important and require additional traceability requirements – such as lot tracking on all items that come in direct contact with the food –all the ingredients, and all their packaging. TRACKING GOODS FROM OTHER COUNTRIES If your products and/or ingredients are coming from other countries, it is important for them to be able to track the countries of origin for raw materials all the way through to the finished goods, which they can do with their ERP system. That visibility is particularly a hot topic these days, given the publicity around some bad materials coming from various countries. The new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law in 2011, requires exporters and importers of food into the U.S. to demonstrate proof of certified compliance with the new laws. Foreign countries will have to show proof of meeting U.S. standards for hygienic food production and distribution in order to be allowed to sell food in the U.S. It’s highly recommended to assign (at least) the level of lot numbering to the items you purchase as raw materials 5Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com HOW FAST ARE YOUR PRODUCT RECALLS? Even if your company can meet the 24-hour minimum requirement set by the federal U.S. government to enact a product recall, you can do better, and your customers may expect you to. What if you could get your product recall process down to, say, a mere 60 seconds? JustFoodERP includes functionality that lets you do bi-directional product recalls, such as immediate integration to Microsoft Word and Outlook for letter writing and notification, within a minute. Now those few employees specialized in product recalls at your company can now take a vacation sometime – other staff can just type the lot number into the ERP system and click a button to trigger the recall. FSMA includes a major section on tracing. The FDA is now mandated to conduct product recalls, which can take place if: • Food becomes contaminated – at any number of stages in the supply chain • An allergen isn’t listed on the food label • Food came in contact with an allergen at some point during processing • Foreign materials were found in the batch • Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) regulations weren’t followed… The possibilities are myriad and the processes complex; you will want to make your part in a product recall as simple as possible. FUTURE-LOOKING: QR CODES FOR TRACKING The use of QR codes will make it easier for food companies to follow produce traceability guidelines since a scan can display all the product data across its supply chain. For example, a QR code on the side of a case or pallet in your warehouse can be scanned by a worker’s smartphone, which takes him to a web page with lot number, date of production, etc. QR codes can carry a lot more information than the traditional bar code and scanner gun. The good news for JustFoodERP users is that there is an add-in that allows your ERP system to create and use QR codes. A quick update to your implementation enables QR codes to be placed almost anywhere in the Microsoft Dynamics environment – reports, forms, etc. The JustFoodERP system features QR codes as built-in functionality. If your products and/or ingredients are coming from other countries, it is important for them to be able to track the countries of origin for raw materials all the way through to the finished goods, which they can do with their erP system. 6Toll-Free: 1.866.788.1086 [email protected] www.justfooderp.com CONCLUSION Many in the food business believe product traceability is more than a strictly enforced requirement, it’s the right thing to do. You don’t want to wait until a large product recall affects your business and your supply chain before you begin assessing how, when, where and why your traceability processes work. Technology can be your best friend when it comes to doing ‘farm to fork’ traceability in the most efficient and effective way. Make sure that your ERP system has traceability built right into the software – from quality management to inventory picking, lot numbering changes to finished goods shipments and much more. The result will be a significant reduction in cost and risk associated with recalls and wasted inventory. A robust ERP with built in traceability, such as provided by JustFoodERP, will ensure your continuing success in these tough regulatory times. ABOUT JUSTFOODERP JustFoodERP delivers software and implementation services for food processing and food distribution companies. Our trusted food experts have built a product that takes you where you want to grow, matching up the best software technology with optimal business processes. JustFoodERP helps your company lower costs, improve food safety and manage compliance to keep you and your customers successful. Make sure that your erP system has traceability built right into the software