Traceability exercise: trace a lot both ways from your records

Backward: from a shipment to its supplier lots

Backward traceability starts from what went out and works back to what came in. Scan or type the shipment number from your despatch records: a shipment is always traced backwards, through its recorded contents to the batches in it, then through the production records to the supplier lots that went into those batches. The trace crosses from despatch into production only where you have confirmed, under Links between the two files, that the batch codes in both refer to the same batches.

Forward: from a supplier lot to every shipment

Forward traceability starts from what came in and follows it to everything made from it and every shipment that carried it. Enter the supplier lot, choose its exact starting record, then choose Forwards: where did it go? and run the trace. TraceBench follows each recorded production operation to its outputs, then each confirmed link into despatch and on to the shipments. Where several inputs share one operation, every input may relate to every output, and the link is labelled potential attribution.

The row behind each link

Open any link in the result to see the file it came from, its record number in the CSV, the stable record ID where you mapped one and every original cell exactly as written, with the file's SHA-256 fingerprint. A link between the two files is labelled Your confirmation or Your declaration, with the reason you gave, so anyone reading the result can see which links the records state and which you supplied.

Where the records stop

TraceBench says where the answer is incomplete. A missing sequence number in a range you declared, coverage you marked Not sure, or a batch code in the other file that nobody has confirmed leaves the result Partial or Unknown, with each reason named in the result. A code with no match is reported as No recorded match within what you loaded, never as proof that it was not made or shipped. Warnings about the files as a whole are kept apart, under Separate project warnings.

Keep the result for the audit file

Download the trace as an A4 PDF, or as a CSV either escaped for spreadsheets or lossless. Both hold the exact question, every link with its rows, the gaps, the separate project warnings and each file's name and SHA-256 fingerprint, and nothing is cut short to fit. Keep the trace in the project history and download a backup, so the exercise can be reopened later with the same files and decisions.

Mass balance and timing stay yours

An exercise usually also checks quantities, called a mass balance: whether the amount received matches the amount used, held and shipped. TraceBench shows quantities only as they are written in the original rows and never adds, allocates or reconciles them, so do the balance in your own system.

It does not time the exercise either. Note when you start and finish, and compare that with the target set by your customer, your certification scheme or your own procedure, which also decide how often to run one; at least once a year is common.

What TraceBench does not do

It does not decide whether to recall, hold stock or notify customers, and it never links records because their codes, dates, descriptions or row order look alike. It reads two current CSV files at a time, with no connection to your ERP, and follows up to 20 manufacturing steps, saying so when a trace stops at a limit. A result describes your records, not what physically happened.