ردیابی به عنوان یک ابزار استراتژیک برای بهبود مدیریت موجودی: یک مطالعه موردی در صنعت مواد غذایی

Our aim in this research is to show that traceability can become much more than just a way to guarantee food safety. To illustrate this idea, we have developed a longitudinal case study of one firm in the Spanish vegetable industry. We show the reasons why this firm decided to implement a computerised traceability system, and we describe how the use of its traceability system has provided them with many qualitative and quantitative advantages along the different stages of their supply chain, their manufacturing operations and their inventory and logistics activities.

Traceability is defined by the American Production and Inventory Control Society (APICS) as “the registering and tracking of parts, processes, and materials used in production, by lot or serial number”. This definition is quite broad, although in the food industry is a concept that has been basically related to as a mechanism to assure food safety. In fact, in the ISO 9000/BS 5750 traceability is defined as a quality procedure referred to as the ability to retrace steps and verify that certain events have taken place. Traceability is nowadays a requisite in the food industry. In fact, as of January 2005, the European Union requires that all food firms must trace their products, in all stages, beginning with suppliers until the arrival of the end products to the final consumers. Our aim in this paper is to show that traceability may become much more than just a mechanism to assure food safety. In order to do this, we have developed a longitudinal case study of one firm in the vegetable industry. We have analysed the impact of their computerised traceability system on inventory management, and on the rest of the organisation. We have found among other outcomes that the firm has improved the management of their inventories through a better use of warehousing space; reduced handling costs; decreased inventory level; and minimised errors related to the whole production and logistics processes. This paper consists of six more sections: first, a review of literature related to traceability (Section 2); then, we describe the firm (Section 3), and then the methodology (Section 4) we have used; in Section 5, we study the reasons why and the way in which the firm implemented their computerised traceability system; then, in Section 6, we show the qualitative and quantitative benefits obtained; and finally, we summarise conclusions and present some venues for future research (Section 7).

FF traceability system truly demonstrates that tracking systems must not be seen short-sightedly: a computerised traceability system represents an optimal way of knowing at all times what is happening along the whole supply chain. As a matter of fact, for this firm, traceability constitutes a blood circulation system. FF has been able to extract decisive information for the enormous amount of data provided by their tracing system. In spite of some initial unwillingness, the implementation of the traceability system has been a major success: the initial investment was recovered in less than 2 years; and the firm has had significant qualitative and quantitative improvements in supply, warehousing, inventory and production. As of today, FF's system is 100% operational and works perfectly well and certainly has become a source of competitive advantages. As a way to illustrate this, not long ago, a potential customer who visited the plant was delighted to check the way in which FF could provide all the pertinent information from a product in just a few seconds after introducing the bar code into the computer system. Finally, we must say that a firm like this one offers many opportunities for further research. Just to mention a couple ideas; we think that certain aspects of the implementation should be studied, specifically the way in which top management dealt with resistance to change. Another aspect that, in our opinion, deserves more attention is the way FF exploits its traceability system as a marketing tool. Obviously, we are now interested in finding more firms that use traceability as a way to improve their general operations. After all, a more general framework may help practitioners from other firms and other industries to take advantage of a system like the one we have analysed at FF.