Skip to main content

Fill gaps with traceability All about end-to-end traceability

To start with, let us simplify the jargon. End-to-end traceability is about tracking and tracing your products from the source of the raw materials to the finished product reaching the end consumer. It is also known as the farm to fork traceability model, where one can access the complete supply chain journey of the product and its transformation from raw material to finished goods.

With consumers getting increasingly brand conscious and aware, it is very important for brand owners to track and trace their product movement to validate claims whenever required. The need for validation can come suddenly or could be built slowly along with consumer safety and awareness. One such recent example of this is a pandemic outbreak, in which consumers focused on buying locally manufactured goods have started asking for the source information. It is also because of increased consumer awareness as they know that industries are heavily dependent on low-cost manufacturing capabilities of China.

Why is end-to-end traceability important?
End-to-end traceability is important as it lends real-time product visibility in the supply chain. It is integral for business owners to know, at all times, where their products are lying in the supply chain.

It gains further importance in the case of products with a short shelf life as it enables them to manage expiries better and ensure minimum product wastage.

In the case of product defects, leading to health risks to consumers or legal risks to brand owners, implementation of the traceability solutions enable manufacturers/brand owners to withdraw the affected batches with speed and accuracy. This enables:
  • Protection of brand image
With social media and Youtube, consumers today have the power to make or break any brand within hours. Hence, the speed of product recalls is essential to protect the brand integrity as companies cannot afford to let the word spread on social media.

  • Validating product claims
End-to-end traceability can be used as an effective tool by brand owners in validating product claims, such as organic, sugar-free, made of coffee beans of certain areas, etc.

  • Making all supply chain partners responsible
There could be many reasons behind a defective batch, ranging from the wrong constitution used at the time of product manufacturing, defected raw material, rodent problem at the warehouse, bad storage conditions, expiry, etc. However, the responsibility of all defected products rests with the brand owners and it is the brand image that is at stake. End-to-end traceability enables brand owners to locate the root cause of the problem and pinpoint the responsible party.

Besides these, there are many other benefits of traceability such as automated data capture leading to freeing up of resource time, efficient product withdrawals, and complete visibility in the supply chain.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DataKart: National Repository of Information on Indian Retailed Products

 Reaching out to customers with accurate product information has never been more competitive and difficult for retailers than today. This is majorly because of the ever increasing complexity of business processes with ever increasing consumer demands of more and more product information. As we move from single-channel retailing to multi-channel retailing, the need for better and efficient product data management has become critical. Listing new products as soon they are launched in the market is critical to ensure that they consumers don’t go back without making sales. This is directly proportional to a retailers/e-tailers’ ability to quickly receive and update information on new products from several suppliers and present it to retail shoppers as per the requirement of the retailing channel, ensuring seamless shopping experience.  However, in the real world scenario, most of this product information is compromised (and lost to some extent) in the process of receiving the sam...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learn About the Benefits of Having GS1 Barcode Numbers On Your Product

 Having spent a lot of years visiting retail stores and outlets, we all must have witnessed a barcode on the packaging of the product that displays a specific pattern of stripes. What we also do notice is that these lines are composed of some numbers or codes which are framed to be scanned by optical readers. Since the lines correspond to a list of numbers, it gets easy to look up any product with a barcode simply by matching those numbers to an entry which is made in a database at the check-out of a retail store. It is interesting to note here that barcodes also play a key role in supply chains, enabling parties like retailers, manufacturers, transport providers, etc., to automatically identify and track products as they move from manufacturing units to the consumer, and hence enable product recalls, detect counterfeits, etc.. What is a genuine barcode number? As we understand the many benefits of barcode numbers, it is important to know that not all barcode numbers can provide th...
Post a Comment
Read more

GS1 Traceability Service Enables Complete Track and trace of Their Products Across the Supply Chain

In today’s consumerist economy, the sale of a good or service is not merely a transaction – it is a brand promise that what is being sold to a consumer is genuine. The idea that a product isn’t what it's seller claims it to be is highly detrimental to consumer perception. The trust that is built gradually over time depletes instantly and damages the brand, delivering a possibly fatal blow to future sales. Long term sales, an important parameter of overall business success, is compromised when a consumer is given a product that is inauthentic, inferior, or unsafe. A brand’s social dimension, defined by the information shared by consumers online and through word-of-mouth, also takes a hit. With their aggressive focus on product data quality , today’s consumers are also acting as activists, taking action against brands that do not deliver on what they promise. Counterfeit products like medicines, faulty medical devices, contaminated foods and unreliable sourcing practices threate...
Post a Comment
Read more