Industries that have a requirement to track their products movement via batches, whether to meet regulatory obligations or to support mature supply chain economics, find it difficult to perform these tasks in an efficient manner.
Disparate Systems ... Are There Inefficiency?
Organizations often deploy multiple systems to track batches, serial numbers or handling units/packages. These disparate systems make it difficult to integrate information from multiple systems into a single platform that provides comprehensive reporting. Disparate systems also do not provide a single source of truth for the information required which can lead to mis-steps and delays.
When using disparate systems, organizations have no easy way to view upstream products, suppliers and customers impacted by a defective batch (bottom-up view). At the same time, there is no view into products, raw materials, or orders that feed into that same defective batch (top-down view). Finding a defective product at a customer or on the shelf requires a combination of top-down and bottom-up analyses to determine the scope of the issue. This top-down, bottom up view provides the complete genealogy, for both upstream and down-stream impacted batches and objects. If using disparate systems, the complete genealogy simply cannot be easily determined or reported upon often taking many weeks to complete. If a defective batch leads to bad press, sickness, or at worst a fatality, the timeliness of determining the root cause to mitigate the impact is business critical.
