Policy or Good Guidance for a Traceability Decision Tree (Serial and Batch Numbers)

[turbinemaker]

At my company (we make wind turbines) we are looking to improve our traceability system. We have recently migrated to SAP and we are looking to cleanup our old settings and future traceability settings. Does anyone have a policy or good guidance for a decision tree for deciding when a serial number or a batch/lot number is relevant for being added to a material? In my company we have many materials that have serial numbers that people argue they due not need serial numbers and we have many materials where we go back and forth about whether we need a batch lot number or not.

 

[Ajit Basrur]

Re: Policy or Good Guidance for a Traceability Decision Tree (Serial and Batch Number

Can any one provide answer to turbinemaker's question? Thank you!

 

[Eredhel]

Re: Policy or Good Guidance for a Traceability Decision Tree (Serial and Batch Number

Do the parts have enough of a history in the field to use that as a guidance? Is it something you can define at the engineering level on a blueprint based on critical characteristics and such?

 

[Miner]

Re: Policy or Good Guidance for a Traceability Decision Tree (Serial and Batch Number

One aspect that you should consider when making your decision is whether traceability will work in both directions.

For example, You have a field issue with a wind turbine. Failure analysis indicates that the material used in a critical component did not meet specification.

1) Can you trace backwards from the failed wind turbine to identify the specific lot of raw material that was used?
2) Can you then trace forward to identify all of the wind turbines that you produced using that specific lot of raw material and to the customer(s) to whom they were sold?

 

[normzone]

Re: Policy or Good Guidance for a Traceability Decision Tree (Serial and Batch Number

Great answer. Another way to look at it is, if the component that you are debating whether or not to establish traceability on had a batch failure in the field, what level of liability would you be comfortable with?

If the answer is " we'd be fine with that, no big deal ", then your decision would be different than if the answer is " Oh, that would be a bad thing ... ".