4 Reasons Why Batch Tracking Is Crucial for Quality Control

Batch tracking will help you maintain high-quality goods

Do you have a traceability system in place that minimizes accounting errors?

Can you verify the history and location of a set of goods in case of a product recall?

Are you aware of which of your products are close to expiring and which aren’t?

If you don’t have a system that can deliver the answers to these questions immediately, or worse, if you don’t have a system that can answer these questions at all, then you need a batch tracking system.

To help you streamline your supply chain and improve your relationships with your customers and suppliers, we’ll help you understand what batch tracking is, why it’s so beneficial, and how you can implement it in your business today.

What is Batch Tracking?

Batch tracking is sometimes referred to as lot tracking, and it’s a process for efficiently tracing goods along the distribution chain using batch numbers.

A “batch” refers to a particular set of goods that were produced together and which used the same materials.

For example, a batch of milk is a set of individual containers of milk that used the same ingredients and has the same expiration date because they were produced together, at the same time.

From raw materials to finished goods, batch tracking allows you to see where your goods came from, where they went, how much was shipped, and when they expire if they have an expiration date.

What are the Benefits of Batch Tracking?

Almost every business uses batch tracking because it offers numerous benefits.

Here are just a few:

Easy and Fast Recall

iSeeCars analyzed new vehicle sales data and recall data from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) from January 1985 through September 2016.

They found that the industry average of car recalls was 1,115 per every 1,000 cars sold.

Almost every car manufacturer had recalls, but here’s why being able to recall your products quickly is so important:

In a study conducted by The Relational Capital Group and reported on by The Motley Fool, 87{cb377218d5687e54e8ee9149518f87201a393a7c1db5e8076e9d750029ec0dc3} of survey respondents said they’d be “more likely to purchase and remain loyal to a company or brand that handles a product recall honorably and responsibly, even though they clearly made mistakes that led to a safety or quality problem.”

Which means, consumers understand that recalls happen, but if you do a poor job recalling the product, then you’ll be chastised by your customers.

So, if you’re a car manufacturer, you would want to make sure that you proactively recall any defective vehicle and publicly or privately apologize and do everything possible to appease your customers.

Regardless of what business you’re in, if you want to be able to recall defective products quickly and easily, then you’ll need a batch tracking system that can give you the detailed information you need to identify every defective product within the batch so you can easily trace them down and retrieve them.

Streamlined Expiry Tracking

Quality control is critical if you’re a food wholesaler.

One of the most important factors for maintaining a high-quality food product is knowing the expiration date for every product you sell, and making sure your customers know this information as well.

Batch tracking allows you to automatically know the expiration date of each product and gives you the power to develop a stronger quality control system in the case of any issues like a product recall.

Improved Relationships with Suppliers

Batch tracking software allows you insight into the quality of your finished goods by tracking the raw materials your suppliers are providing you.

This gives you the ability to identify your best and worst suppliers, which gives you greater control over who you’ll purchase your material from.

Fewer Accounting Errors from Manual Tracking

A manual batch tracking system is extremely time-consuming and error-prone.

It’s very easy to enter incorrect data, omit data, misinterpret data, or misplace your data.

An automatic batch tracking system allows you to enter information that is generated across all products within your batch and puts that information at your fingertips if you need to access it quickly, as in the case of a product recall.

How Can You Start Batch Tracking Today?

The best way to start batch tracking is with a cloud-based inventory management system.

This will allow you to assign batch numbers, expiration dates, and serial numbers to your finished products.

But it will also allow you to track the purchase orders and sales of your batches for easy accounting.

And, because this inventory management system is cloud-based, you can track your batches from anywhere in the world.

If you want to do batch tracking efficiently, then consider using DEAR’s cloud-based inventory management system.