The ability to track the product through each and every step of the manufacturing process is referred to as traceability. Being able to track the product right from the moment it enters the factory as a raw material to its packaging and shipping helps the business with overall quality control. It is important for the business to track and trace information on each part which includes recording data end to end, from inspection results to assemble details and more.
Traceability should be a priority in the manufacturing business, no matter what you are manufacturing to ensure that you can effectively recall a defective or contaminated product with full information hands-on.
According to Harvard Business Review, there have been more than 4000 cases of recall between the year 2010-2015, which is a significant increase from 1980 when it was 221. Its high time businesses take traceability and recall management seriously.
An effective strategy for traceability and recall management put in place will help the business with:
- Improving root cause analysis
- Bring continues improvement
- Increase quality
- Boost customer engagement
- Facilitates value stream mapping
This is why in today’s blog post, we bring to you some effective traceability and recall management strategies. Thus these will help your business with quality control and bring more visibility for effective recall management:
Be quick
The quicker you handle recall, the more profitable it is for your business. Hence, it will be less damaging to your brand’s reputation. It’s important that you know the location of the product. A cloud ERP like Acumatica can help you quickly locate the real-time location of your product.
Create a dedicated recall management team
Have a product retrieval process in place. The best option would be to have a recall management team that will quickly retrieve the product through its lot number and other details.
Be prompt with PR
The second you realize that a defective product is launched in the market, make it a point to immediately address. Check different channels from where you operate your business. Thus, this will save your business’s reputation. The last thing you want is a consumer complaining about the product.
Effectively communicate with the customers
Once the defective product is in the market, you can expect consumers to reach out to your business with questions pertaining to their safety concerns. This is why it is important that you train your staff well to handle such a situation. They should have all the information which can satisfy consumer’s search for the right answers.
Cooperate with the government regulators
If you plan to hide data from the governmental organization, be prepared to either face scrutiny, pay a hefty penalty, or a possible business shutdown. To avoid this, you can optimize corporation with the government regulators. Not only can they help you recover from the recall, but they can also issue a public notice to ensure your brand reputation is not tarnished for the long term.
The recall might come as a surprise, but that does not necessarily mean that your business has to get gravely affected by it. This can be ensured if you have an effective recall management strategy like those mentioned above in place.