Insights

By Rick Loh, CEO, NW Solutions (M) Sdn Bhd

Sooner or later, every manufacturer gets the call. A customer has found a faulty part and wants to know which material lot it came from, which other shipments used that lot, and whether stock on your shelves is affected.

How long it takes to answer depends less on your ERP than on how the trail was recorded. If lot numbers were written on paper and keyed in later, the answer takes days of digging. If they were captured when the material moved, it is a few screens away. Below is what Infor LN and Infor CloudSuite Industrial Enterprise (CSIE) provide for lot and serial traceability, and how to keep the data behind it complete.

What Infor LN gives you

Infor CSIE is the cloud edition of Infor LN, so everything below applies to both. Infor's own documentation describes the following capabilities.

Lot control. Any item in LN can be defined as lot controlled. For each lot, LN can record details such as the lot number, supplier, manufacturer and certificate number. There are two styles of lot control. "Lots in inventory" gives a high level of detail, including the location of each lot, and suits lower-volume, higher-value items. "Lots not in inventory" is designed for high-volume, low-value items such as fasteners, where detailed tracking would create unnecessary admin.

Lot tracking. When lot tracking is switched on, LN records the orders through which lots were received and issued. Its overview sessions, including Item, Lot and Serial 360, show where a lot came from and where it went. Infor notes that full tracing from purchase to sale works when each level of the bill of material is lot controlled, so this is a design decision to make early.

Serial tracking. Serial numbers can be tracked through receipts, transfers, storage and issues, and linked to the purchase, production, sales or service orders involved. In manufacturing, LN can show which production order a serialised end item came from, which components were used and where those components originated.

Quality inspection. LN Quality creates inspection orders for products that are purchased, produced, transferred or sold. Test results can be recorded against the item, lot and serial number, and failed material can be raised on a non-conformance report, so quality records sit on the same trail as stock movements.

The structure for traceability is already in the system. The weak point is usually the data going into it.

Where traceability breaks down

Gaps usually appear in the same places:

Receiving. The supplier's lot number is on the delivery note, but the clerk keys it later, or not at all, when the dock is busy.

Material issue. Material is taken to the line, but nobody records which lot was used on which production order. This is the gap that breaks backward tracing.

Production reporting. Output is reported in bulk at the end of the day, so the link between a batch of finished goods and the lots consumed becomes an estimate.

Inspection. Results sit on paper forms or spreadsheets, separate from the lot record.

Shipment. Lots or serials are not confirmed at dispatch, so you cannot say with confidence which customer received what.

Together, these small gaps turn a traceability report into a guess.

Capture at the point of work

The practical fix is to record each movement where it happens, with a scan rather than handwriting. NWSM has built two products for this.

NWSM Barcode is our barcode solution for Infor LN, built by our team and in daily use at several Malaysian manufacturers. Labels carry the item and lot identity, and operators scan instead of writing numbers down.

Insight is our Android app for Infor LN. Its live modules follow the traceability chain closely:

Receiving, so supplier lots are recorded as goods arrive.

Material Issue, so each lot is tied to the production order that consumed it.

Report Production, so output is reported as it happens, not at the end of the shift.

Inspection, so quality results are captured at the line.

Shipment, so dispatched lots and serials are confirmed against the customer order.

Because the data lands in LN at the moment of the transaction, the standard LN tracing sessions have complete information.

A sensible way to start

You do not need to control everything on day one. Phase it:

Decide what must be traced. Start with the items customers and auditors ask about, and agree whether lot, serial or both apply.

Choose the right lot style. Use detailed lot control for valuable or critical items and the high-volume option for consumables.

Design the labels. Agree what goes on the label and where it is printed, for example at receiving or at the end of the line.

Fix the issue step first. Material issue to production is where most chains break, so make it a scan, not a form.

Run a mock recall. Pick a lot, trace it forward and backward, and time it. Repeat after each change.

The mock recall is the honest test of whether the system is doing its job.

Linking traceability to the rest of the business

Good traceability data is useful beyond complaints. The same accurate transactions improve stock accuracy, make production costing more reliable and reduce invoicing disputes, including corrections to the e-invoices you submit to LHDN's MyInvois system.

Talk to us

If you run Infor LN or CSIE and want to know how quickly you could answer a traceability request today, we are happy to walk through one of your recent lots with you and show where the trail could be tightened. Contact NWSM at inquiry@nwsm.com or +603 7713 5388.