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12 Tips for Managing a Food Traceability Project
No food business sets out to optimise traceability without
having specific objectives in mind. Today traceability is widely
acknowledged asa tool for food safety management, food quality
management, product recall management, logistics, process
efficiency, cost control,competitive advantage etc. Consequently,
traceability can be implemented for a number of reasons, as a
separate function or part ofbusiness, logistic, commercial or
quality management solutions.
It is important that food manufacturers do not leap headlong
into a t raceability project without first investing time and
resources in theplanning required to ensure the project
successful.
For success it will be critical to align your selected food
traceability system with your business processes and
requirements.
12 Tips for a Successful Project:
1. Establish your precise traceability objectives: What are your
operational and strategic goals associated with the project? Link
these goals to your traceability targets. Determine if your
traceability objectives are driven by brand protection, commercial
pressure, regulatory pressure,
internal pressure to optimise operations, manage your supply
chain etc.
Determine your traceability goals per function.2. Document your
production and control processes and develop a process model.3.
Document your existing traceability system.4. Identify current
traceability gaps by reviewing your existing traceability system
and production process in the context of your
specific traceability objectives.5. Identify problem areas that
need to be adapted for more stringent traceability for example,
mixing raw materials in bulk silos,
uncontrolled mixing of product flows in larger logistic units
etc.6. Construct a traceability information model to define the
information needed for achieving the defined traceability goals.7.
Determine the project scope the process and supply chain aspects
that will be covered by the traceability system.8. Establish a
cross functional team to evaluate potential solutions from a range
of vendors.9. Evaluate the alternatives using your highest priority
objectives and the differentiating factors of the solutions on
offer.10. Perform a cost / benefit analysis on potential solutions,
develop a benefits realisation plan and obtain a clear view of
the
payback period.11. Consider the various components that will
ultimately affect the implementation of an effective solution
including integration with
existing systems, data cleaning and migration, hardware and
network considerations, software customisation requirements
anddeployment options, training strategy etc.
12. Choose a solution that is the right fit for your company,
based on your specific objectives, unique requirements and
budget.Start off by acknowledging that success may depend as much
on the effective management of the required process and
organisationalchanges as on the technology solution selected. Then
pinpoint your companys strengths, weaknesses and core competencies
in relationto the food traceability challenge.
After Go-Live
The process of meeting your food traceability objectives will
not end when the system goes live. Leveraging the benefits will be
on-goingprocess. On an continuous basis you need to ensure
that:
Your employees are fully aware of the systems full
functionality, and are using it correctly and effectively. Your
processes and workflows have been well defined so that the system
facilitates optimal traceability, quality management
and process efficiency at all times.
The system is being utilised to ensure maximum added value.
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Opportunities to improve traceability, quality management and
process efficiency using the system are leveraged on an on-going
basis.
What about traceability return on investment?
By implementing a real-time traceability system, food companies
are better able to monitor and leverage key information to
achievetangible levels of performance improvement in areas such as
production efficiency and streamlining, labour costs, yield
management andproduct value optimisation.
How confident can you be that implementing a food traceability
software system really does deliver quantifiable returns and how
mightthey be calculated? Thats the subject of SoftTraces latest
white paper Food Traceability The Carrot and the Stick!. In it we
examinethe economic value that can be realised by intoducing
SoftTrace into a medium sized Dairy processing plant, including
internal costs ofimplementation and key areas for potential return
such as laboratory costs, waste product disposal, production costs
etc.
Request a copy at www.soft-trace.com.
www.soft-trace.comTel: +353 (0) 21 4533781 IUS Toll Free:
[email protected]
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