Identification & Traceability Procedure example wanted

[shazzmick]

Morning All
I'm trying to update our Identifcation & Traceability Procedure as it is not very comprehensive or specific. We are a manufacturing facility - does anyone have any templates or basics that they could share to assist me please?
Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
Regards

[Stijloor]

In Reply to Parent Post by shazzmick

Morning All
I'm trying to update our Identifcation & Traceability Procedure as it is not very comprehensive or specific. We are a manufacturing facility - does anyone have any templates or basics that they could share to assist me please?
Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
Regards

I assume that you're an ISO 9001 company? The standard does not require a ducumented procedure for Identification/Traceability. However, there is no rule that says you can't. I did an advanced search for you on "Identification and Traceability." Look at the results. Some additional searching and exploring is necessary. I hope you'll find what you need. If not, please come back.

Stijloor.

[Marc]

A primary question is what are you wanting to control?

[shazzmick]

In Reply to Parent Post by Marc

A primary question is what are you wanting to control?

Hi Mark
We are trying to ensure that we have traceability from receiving (everything from reo to concrete raw materials) and being able to identify which deck units they went into.
Does that make sense?
Thanks
Sharon

[Marc]

The problem you run into is each part of the process often has a different traceability aspect. You might want to read Is Identification and Traceability a procedure or more of a guideline?

I've attached a couple of things, but they're rather old and a bit lame. But, you can consider them 'food for thought'.

What you have to consider is how critical your product and its sub-components are as to how 'much' traceability you need. For example, were you a medical device manufacturer, or if you made air bags for cars, your traceability needs would be more than if you made rubber ducks for kids to play with in the bath tub.

Usually I see identification and traceability as more of a process specific aspect. For example, receiving would be one point. But even in receiving you are typically going to have more than one raw material and/or component so each *may* have it's own traceability requirement(s) and inspection plan (usually derived from a product quality plan).

More often than not, traceability is not a high level procedure.

Just some thoughts.

[harry]

In Reply to Parent Post by shazzmick

Hi Mark
We are trying to ensure that we have traceability from receiving (everything from reo to concrete raw materials) and being able to identify which deck units they went into.
Does that make sense?
Thanks
Sharon

One of the main consideration for traceabiliity is customer requirement. If there is, you need to have it for the product that you manufacture.

Lets take the example of a precast concrete product. You need to keep details of casting date, source of concrete used, curing details, etc. But do you need to go into details such as which lorry load of crushed stone/aggregate?

The answer to me is 'No'. No need to complicate or overdo things. If you go back to concrete design, you will note that factors that affect concrete strength (for aggregate) are the quality of granite (Source) and the Grading Curve (percentage weight of each grading size and its distribution). What is normally done is you fix the source that is approved. Next you do incoming checks (physical check) on distribution size and shape (shape is important and related to crusher) to determine that it is within the range of the approved grading curve. You may do a seive test on and off depending on how critical or important. Minerals don't change overnight, even years. The same applies to sand. For cement and rebar there are batch numbers from the manufacturer.

[Umang Vidyarthi]

In Reply to Parent Post by shazzmick

Morning All
I'm trying to update our Identifcation & Traceability Procedure as it is not very comprehensive or specific. We are a manufacturing facility - does anyone have any templates or basics that they could share to assist me please?
Thank you in anticipation of your assistance.
Regards

Hello Shazzmick,

'Identification' and 'Traceability' are distinctly different, viz:

Identification- The method to identify and separate two or more products/things.

Traceability- The ability to trace a product 'backwards' through each activity/process [upto the raw material(s) used].

Both of them are supposed to be in-built in the process itself. For identification you may choose any from colur coding, bar code, punch marks, stencil etcetra as per your feasibility.

Since you are into manufacturing, I suggest the use of 'Travel Jackets'. The travel jacket has to move with the lot/batch from work-station to work- station recording every activity on it. From the travel jacket, you trace back to the work-station, from there you link it to the job card, work instruction and so on.

I have found this system as very convenient, yet once I faced a problem when some components were rejected at customer's end. I traced back through the 'Travel Jacket' but was stumped in identifying the checker at final inspection. There onwards I issued coloured markers and alloted symbols to each checker. Now, in case of any rejection, the culprit is caught in a jiffy. Knowing this, the checkers have become more alert, and customer complaints have reduced.

Moral of the story is, that there should not be any weak link in the trceability process.

Hope this helps

Umag

[Colin]

I rarely use a separate procedure for identification and traceability. I build it into other procedures e.g. at goods inwards I may have a procedure describing how to handle the goods including how to identify items and if required, how to apply traceability. By the way, I would also include how to handle nonconformities discovered in that area in the same procedure.