In recent years, the ‘green’ supply chain has emerged as a significant trend, aimed at reducing the environmental impact of operations while also fostering stronger loyalty from customers towards sustainable commitments. Within this context, traceability is seen as a revolutionary tool supporting sustainability in the supply chain, helping companies enhance efficiency, resilience, and competitiveness.
What is traceability?
Traceability is the ability to identify, track, and trace the elements of a product as it moves along the supply chain from raw materials to finished goods. Alongside transparency and supply chain mapping, traceability is a concept that helps illustrate multi-tier visibility in the supply chain. This capability provides information from the beginning of the supply chain to the end consumer, validating the origin and sustainability of the product.
Why are businesses increasingly focusing on traceability capabilities?
- Increasing ability to detect and address incidents: When a faulty batch emerges, buyers can easily trace the origins of the issues, identify relevant parties involved, and implement preventive measures for the future. In return, traceability also helps businesses steer clear of issues, serving as compelling evidence to protect suppliers from hefty penalties.
- Building competitive positioning, enhancing brand recognition: Consumers are increasingly concerned about the origin and journey of what they purchase. This has made green supply chains a new development direction for businesses. Therefore, equipping traceability capabilities within an environmentally friendly supply chain is an advantage that helps businesses gain market favor.
- Enhanced management capabilities: Data from the traceability process can help businesses optimize operations by planning notifications and generating management reports. This data relates to issues such as shipping times, inventory management, and production efficiency.
What do businesses need to achieve traceability capability?
End to end traceability is crucial, yet it poses many challenges due to modern supply chain complexity. Companies are opting to invest in tracking technologies and data analytics to ensure transparency regarding origin, manufacturing processes, and product transportation. Current solutions in the market include barcodes or RFID for efficient data capture across the supply chain.
TradeLink Technologies has long been able to track its finished goods using barcode solutions, scanning, and messaging. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies, TradeLink can now deploy these tracking technologies for its Work In Progress (WIP 361) and Raw Material 1 (RM1) management processes. In terms of traceability, TradeLink provides the capability to track products and verify sustainability requirements for customers, manufacturing suppliers, and raw material suppliers.
Manual processes only slow you down and lead to more errors. Start today to take control and lead the way in greening your supply chain journey.
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About TradeLink Technologies,
TradeLink Technologies (TradeLink) was founded in 1999 with a mission to create advanced supply chain solutions for global brands and retailers. We provide visibility, accuracy, and advanced distribution solutions for over 400 global brands and more than 50 logistics companies, leveraging a network of over 11,000 suppliers across 70 countries. With our latest local and cloud-based scanning and barcode applications, our solutions are scalable to fit businesses of all sizes. TradeLink’s strength lies in our industry expertise in supply chain management and utilization of cutting-edge technology. Learn more at: www.tradelinkone.com