Ingredients Traceability

A bakery operating without an MES system relied manually on consumption and ingredient traceability information stored in the ERP system, assisted by predefined settings in the Bill of Material module. The ERP system foresaw a single pickup location for raw materials for each product.

In many cases, material was actually picked from different locations than those defined in the ERP, so the backflush method in use would report a shortage in one place. ERP users then had to manually investigate what happened and fill in the missing information. Often, there was not enough information to determine the exact pickup location, so it was entered randomly. This created an obvious error in the reported ingredient list for the finished goods.

By introducing labeled containers that were scanned when loading into specific silos and again when unloading into the production process, and by reporting actual consumed amounts instead of BoM defaults, stock level issues were fully eliminated, and traceability was finally correct.