Trace information from original raw material

Legacy Contributor

Hello,

This is a long time issue that we've had that I'm hoping one of you have solved in your organization and can shed some light.

We stamp steel components. In the steel industry, it is essential to be able to trace the end product back to the steel's original "lot" information. So our finished product must have documentation that traces back to the original coil or sheet that it came in with. Everything that goes out our door must be clearly labeled with this information and we have to maintain the record keeping to be able to show which lot of steel any product that went out our door came from.

Our process is:

- receive the raw material and use Part Trace columns to record the information in Trace Profile 1, the first trace column is our "lot ID," which I'll call LOT_ID

- issue the raw material to our initial stamping work order and manually type all of the information recorded in the raw material trace columns to this part in Trace Profile 2, manually type in TRACE_ID to match the raw material's LOT_ID

- issue the material from the intermediate stamping operation to the final stamping operation, manually type all of the trace information recorded from the prior material issue to the trace data in this Inventory Transaction, the profile remains Trace Profile 2, but since nine times out of ten we don't have to keep track of this LOT_ID any more, we just have the system create a sequentially numbered TRACE_ID

This way, the work order has the original raw material's trace information in its trace columns. Obviously, it is a ton of seemingly extra work and leaves us very vulnerable to human error through mistypes.

Is there an easier way? I've pored through the trace documentation and haven't come anything.

I'm in the process of getting the company to use the DEMAND_SUPPLY_LINK table for our work order to customer order allocation. In my mind, if there was a linked route from finished product to raw material, it may be possible to pull it up. Is anyone doing this?

I'm hoping we are just missing something easy...

Thanks!

Adam

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Legacy Contributor

Hi Adam,
We have used the Lot Trace module for years and the process is very easy.
We create a trace profile for each part id that we want to trace. In the case of a purchased part, when we receive it we create the Lot trace based on the PO number and line item number, for example 40491/1. Then when the material is issued to the work order we select whichever lot id is being issued. There is no re-typing of information; all the critical information is entered once when the item is received.
Perhaps I'm not understanding the complexity of your business process.

Legacy Contributor

Are you using "Begin Traceability At This Operation" on your Engineering masters?

Legacy Contributor

Hi Adam,

On your TRACE Profile Maintenance, if you set your Numbering to Auto the system will keep all the trace you need.

At the end when you ship the goods out you can print a Trace Label on the Boxes and with that Trace ID you will be able to Trace right down to the Batch of Material used using the PART TRACE MAINTENANCE window.

I have attached an image below that shows how you can drill down from Part to batch of Material.

Hope it helps.
Ridz

Legacy Contributor

Gail,

I think the issue becomes when we issue the part from one work order to another, yet still want to reference the trace information from the original raw material. I attached a simple drawing that might make more sense. For each issue, we are retyping the information the original raw material's profile into the new work order's trace information. So by the time it gets to shipping, a work order will have the Trace ID's associated to it that reference back to that original raw material.

Tom,

I poked around the Eng/Man window and wasn't able to find "Begin traceability..." I'll look through the documentation and check it out tomorrow.

Ridz,

Can you attach the image in a larger size? Either it is very small or the site has turned it into a thumbnail and I can't make anything out!

Thanks for all the help. I will hopefully be able to dedicate more time to this tomorrow!

Adam

Legacy Contributor

File did not upload...

Wichtige Lösungen in der Wissensdatenbank April 2013.pdf

Legacy Contributor

"Begin Traceability at this operation"...we are on Visual 7.0

Manufacturing window...

Open an operation...

"Other" tab...

Right-hand column, 5th entry down.

Legacy Contributor

Adam,
Do you receive Work Order 1 into inventory and then issue it as a component of Work Order 2? If so you should be able to follow the trace records back. Is there a reason the original trace has to be on the final WO itself or would a report suffice?

Infor CloudSuite_Field_Service Monthly_Newsletter_November_2020.pdf

Legacy Contributor

If you are tracing something like a purchased product where the key trace record ID is set by the producer (ex Heat Number) then the trace ID you use internally should be that number and definitely NOT autonumbered. It is just so much easier to use the vendor number because it is marked on the product etc. As an alternative your PO and line number (or even better, your receiver ID and line number) will give you some nice data associations.

Adam the primary problem is your process is deliberately avoiding the primary benefit of trace. You shouldn't put the trace information in the attribute columns but make it the primary record. As others have stated, when you do so, you can issue the proper trace record to the job and use the built in functions to see all the traced components from CO shipment back to the PO.

You also must maintain a solid link of traced items from purchase receipt through all the multiple levels of internal work orders up to the finished good.

One thing Visual does not yet do well is to track trace IDs that go into other trace IDs specifically. For example, if I have 10 motors with 10 serial numbers going into ten power packs that also have individual serial numbers, I can't associate motor A to powerpack 110 and motor B to powerpack 112. The traces are considered blended in the work order and you lose specific configuration tracking.

Through one level of assembly this is not a huge problem but when you have several levels the information resolution loss can be significant.

The begin trace on operations is only necessary if you must track who worked on each trace record within the work order. For example if you had to know who welded a particular traced item. Most users do not need this setting nor will it solve the problem described.

Legacy Contributor

I have attached it as a word doc now.

Legacy Contributor

Everyone,

Thanks for the responses. I think I'm clear on what we're doing wrong. You're all giving me the ammunition I need to make the case to management that we ought to change course.

The confusion here stems from us ignoring the DEMAND_SUPPLY_LINK table entirely. I can plainly see now that if we were linking everything from the raw material Purchase Order to shipment of an end product, that we'd be able to reference each transaction back to the original PO's TRACE_ID.

Gail,

The original trace ID does need to be on the work order because the way it is packaged and marked for the customer depends on how that raw material is consumed on the production floor. We're currently using a custom work order via Crystal Reports anyway, so changing how we use trace won't be a big deal.

John,

So if I'm understanding correctly, a way out would be to have traceability on the raw material and use the heat/slab # as the TRACE_ID? Would we then only apply trace to the raw material? What I mean is that could we then not require trace on the final product as long as those links are made from the raw material to what goes out the door?

Thanks again everyone.

Adam

Legacy Contributor

Adam,

A couple of things:
1) Don't rely on DEMAND_SUPPLY_LINK for trace, it is way too easy to break the links and join them again in some other way. It is not a robust way to track key information like trace records.

2) If want to trace what raw material goes into the shipped finished product then you must maintain a trace trail from the raw material through each level of production to the final product.

If you record the heat number as the trace ID when you receive the PO, then you will be required to report what trace number (heat number) you issue to the work order when you use the material. You should then set the finished item from the work order to also be traced so that when you ship it you know exactly what you shipped. You could, in theory, link the CO to the WO but then you lose the ability to build to inventory and using trace IDs instead of DEMAND SUPPLY links is much more reliable.

How many levels of work orders are there between raw materials and finished goods you ship to the customer?

Legacy Contributor

John,

Typically there are two levels of work orders:

1) coil of steel to blank
2) blank to finished part

This would be in the simplest "make to order" case. There can be several more levels though, say if we have the part in inventory and take from stock to fulfill a customer order or if we need to process the coil of steel and add a service work order. Or, of course, if we have to re-work a part or re-blank a blank.

So trace would be required for each part, we just use the same trace id for the finished good that was assigned to the initial raw material?

I'm going to have to play around with this in a test environment to wrap my head around it.

Adam

Inquiry Tab Placement.docx

Legacy Contributor

Yes, the example I showed you was done without the DEMAND_SUPPLY_LINK.

Legacy Contributor

OK, so I'm attempting this in the test database and I"ve run into the problem that I think is leading us down the road we're on.

I created the blank work order and issued the raw material to it using the Trace ID created at raw material PO receipt. In this case, I used H123456-S789 (for Heat # 123456 and Slab # 789).

Now I am at the final part Work Order and I want to issue the blank to the part. I right-click on the material -> Inventory Transaction Entry -> Part Traceability and enter "H123456-S789" in "LOT NUMBER" (what we have renamed the TRACE_ID in this profile) and I receive the error:

"Non-Unique LOT NUMBER. Please re-enter."

I've attached the screen cap.

In the past, this is what has led to us creating a second profile so that we can reuse that TRACE_ID. Another work around we have done is to use the same TRACE_ID, but add a "-1" to the end of it so that we technically have that number, but know that it was just issued to multiple work orders because of that -1. I am sure that is a big no-no in maintaining accurate trace, but it's the way things have been done!

I hope that helps in illuminating where we are going wrong.

Thanks again for all the help!

Adam

Legacy Contributor

I would suggest using Automatic Trace (so the system will generate primary keys).

The use the user_defined fields on the Part_Trace_Profile to fill in "H123456-S789".

image below

Legacy Contributor

Ridz,

What you've described is exactly what we're doing. To carry that information from the raw material to the blank and then to the finished part requires us to type that information in again from one to another. Each time we add another work order to the mix, we have to type in the attributes again.

Am I missing something?

Thanks again!

Adam

Legacy Contributor

FYI: Ridz, I just ran through the process you outlined in your Part Trace Maintenance example on a part that I was fairly certain that we had clean links from raw material to the final work order. When I click "Detail" on it, I'm getting the error:

"Must select a row that contains a valid work order receipt reference."

Legacy Contributor

When I attempt to run that procedure on our blanks, I am able to get back to the raw material...

Could it be because we are changing Trace Profiles between blank and finished part?

Legacy Contributor

Hi sorry I was away yesterday at the Inforum 2014 event here in the UK.
Some pretty cool stuff coming in Visual 8 May 2015.

I will have to recreate your scenario and try it out but I know if only lets you drill to the detail if it is a WO Receipt highlighted.

Let me have a go at it on my TEST DB

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