TRACEABILITY - WHAT, WHY AND HOW

With technological advancement and cut-throat competition in the market, gaining consumer confidence and maintaining real-time product visibility in the supply chain is difficult. Product traceability becomes an important business requirement in today’s context, primarily, because the consumers are increasingly getting conscious of what products they are buying and consuming, and hence would like to validate products through traceability. Besides, there were various trade and consumer safety related reasons that have led to the realization of critical need of a strong and effective traceability solution in supply chain management.

For instance, back in early 2006-07, there was a large-scale concern about Samsung mobile phones getting blasted due to battery issues. This caused the manufacturer to identify the problem, stop production and recall all mobile sets already in the market. Traceability in such situations provides an effective system to easily recall products.

LET US UNDERSTAND WHAT TRACEABILITY IS:

Traceability refers to the organisation’s ability to identify, track and trace elements of a product / consignment as it moves along the supply chain from raw goods to finished products. In today’s complex supply chains, end-to-end traceability is both critical and exceedingly difficult to accomplish. To ensure a smooth and error-free supply chain operation, GS1 India has come up with a seamless traceability service that enables manufacturers to easily track and trace their products right through the journey from origin to the point of its sale and consumption.

Effective traceability system offers real-time information about the products’ journey in the supply chain. GS1 India’s Traceability standards provide manufacturers/brand owners with all the necessary framework to support a seamless traceability system for their products’ supply chain. For more than a decade, GS1 Global Traceability Standards (GTS) have assisted in defining the globally accepted method for sharing and identifying information about the products with trading partners on the trading location, trading items, trading units, etc. GTS has helped various industries to frame and conduct the direct implementation of traceability solutions and enable conformity with global regulations such as G.A.P (Good Agricultural Products), ISO standards on Traceability and recalls, EU Food laws, etc.

To match the need of today’s business and ensure what is lying where at any given time in the supply chain, GS1 has developed GTS 2 as with newer technologies, complexities are emerging related to traceability solutions. This updated standard will include reference to new technical possibilities such as EPCIS, which provide new data and event sharing information to connect databases and to get the product information searching in the cloud portal. This new GTS solution by GS1 is global and cross-cutting multi-sectoral that will continue to meet the needs of the industries.

WHY DO WE NEED IT?

Implementation of the traceability solution enables manufacturers and brand owners to ensure real-time product visibility in the supply chain so that:

1. They can have accurate information or control over their products as to what is moving where. It is important for a brand owner to keep track of the batches that are being produced and are released into the supply and logistics network until the life of the product to manage wastages.
2. Avoid counterfeiting, infiltrations, diversions, etc. to protect the brand’s integrity and image
3. Trace the product for effective product withdrawal in the wake of any untoward incident or emergency
4. Enhance customers’ satisfaction and ensure consumer safety

Traceability is accountability which means it makes all the trading partners responsible for your product in the supply chain. Therefore, the need of an hour is to take advantage of such benefits that allow you peace of mind and an ability to run smooth operations. HOW TO AVAIL TRACEABILITY SERVICE? To avail GS1 India’s Traceability service or to know more about its benefits, visit:

https://support.gs1india.org/traceability-service-consultation