Meeting Customer Traceability & Labeling Requirements
SUMMARY
This food processor is a world leader in providing quality products and custom solutions for the food industry, co-manufacturing meat, beef, pork, chicken, poultry and seafood, as well as vegetable dough, fruit and cheese based products. Working with some of the largest food and food service companies in the industry, this company needed to meet new customer traceability and labeling requirements that included a Serial Shipping Container Code (SSSC), a GS1 standard case label and the transfer of key supply chain data. The objective of this project was to design and implement a solution that supported current and future customer requirements while limiting the impact to current operations.
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CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS
Challenge 1: Meet customers’ Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) and case label requirements
Solution: This food processor had a number of large, key customers requiring them to add Serial Shipping Container Codes (SSCC) to outbound pallets, as well as provide additional customer-specific case labels utilizing GS1 standards. These labeling changes required this company to make not only design changes to their labels, but also process and technology changes.
To meet the requirement of SSCC labeling of outbound pallets, Clarkston created several new pallet labels supporting logistical SSCC GS1 barcodes and also 1d and 2d barcodes designed to support warehouse and customer requirements. The solution allows for the SSCC to be added to the label at manufacturing receipt. It is then used in the warehouse and at time of shipping, sending Advance Shipping Notices (ASN) to customers via EDI for traceability.
For the case label solution, both customer and company specific case labels were needed. Graphical design software, SAP label creation functionality and ERP data were used to create the label. Then, Clarkston built an interface that sends the label design to the print-and-apply vendor equipment. The interface also allows interactive label data transfer directly from SAP ERP to the MES print-and-apply systems. Labeling on the case matches the pallet labels for full use at the warehouse, during transit, and at the customer facilities.
Challenge 2: Traceability data transfer for large food service customer.
Solution: For food safety and traceability purposes, one of this processor’s large food service customers now requires their vendors to provide key supply chain data. To collect the required information, Clarkston developed an SAP program that records transactional data from key supply events such as receiving, manufacturing, and distribution. The program then transmits the collected data to the customer’s centralized database, FoodLogiQ. The information stored in the database provides their customer traceability on their finished product, tracing back to intermediates and raw material ingredients. This sharing of data is yet another investment that demonstrates this food processor’s commitment to supply chain integrity and ultimately food safety.
