How Traceability can Improve Customer Satisfaction

Recalls are expensive and often extremely damaging to not only the brands involved but the producers and manufacturers.

Customer satisfaction is vital in all industries – from food production to electronics manufacturing. When customers purchase products, they expect not only quality, but reliability from the product that they have purchased.

By using devices such as tracking monitors, the entire movement of a product through each stage of the manufacturing process can be analyzed. Automated technology improves visibility in the supply chain while optimizing production, with the aim of preventing recalls.

Using your ERP to implement a robust traceability system

To implement a robust traceability system, different teams must collaborate – production, quality control, warehouse management, customer service, and support – to identify the materials and items that require traceability and decide how information needs to be recorded during the manufacturing and dispatch process. An ERP system can be successful at delivering the right traceability information by extending its reach down to the plant floor or integrating it with your other systems tied to your manufacturing such as MES (Manufacturing Execution Systems) and WMS (Warehouse Management Systems).

Key benefits of your traceability system in improving your supply chain operations:

Greater cost efficiencies

By isolating the impacted components or finished goods prior to customer shipments, manufacturers can benefit from substantial direct and indirect cost-avoidance that justify the upfront investment of a traceability system.

Manufacturers can control product origin, status, and location while meeting industry standards by automating tracking and tracing processes. Manufacturers can optimize production for a more cost-efficient supply chain.

Improved processes

With a traceability system in place, manufacturers can monitor and detect any production problems or inefficiencies for significant process improvements. Simple enhancements, such as digital storage and access to documents, consolidating databases, simplifying expense and cost recovery systems, and automating manual processes, can have a major impact on overall production costs. Leveraging traceability systems in lean manufacturing processes can help drive significant qualitative and quantitative improvements that impact profitability.

Enhanced customer service

More importantly, customers are assured of product quality as they can see where products are sourced, how they are built and how they are delivered.

The correct information should underscore the authenticity of your brand. Manufacturers can differentiate themselves by taking advantage of direct and indirect benefits provided by a traceability system: improving processes, controlling the supply chain, minimizing defect risk, navigating regulatory challenges and improving customer service levels.