The epidemic has brought in a renewed effort in maintaining strict hygiene and safety standards keeping consumer safety in mind. It is needed for business owners to have clear visibility of the supply chain. Traceability plays an indispensable role in consumer safety when it comes to either food and pharmaceutical products or industrial goods. The following are the top 7 reasons that indicate why traceability implementation is important.
Reason 1 – Competitive Edge
If you are implementing traceability before your competition then you would have an edge over the competition as there is more trust in businesses that are transparent about their operations in terms of their sourcing and suppliers. If your competition is already implementing traceability then its definitely required for you to quicken the pace in the implementation.
Reason 2 – Global Business
Businesses today span across countries and when products are imported and exported, customers who are used to this trust of being able to trace a product to its origin will look forward to the same experience in all types of products that are purchased. Businesses are already implementing serialization and track and trace Read for more info. in their operations and would expect this to only get better.
Reason 3 – Minimizing losses due to counterfeit goods.
Brands worldwide face heavy losses because of counterfeit goods which make their way into the supply chain as the the counterfeiters are able to make these goods appear legitimate. The products in any supply chain lifecycle goes through a series of exchanges including the mode of transport, sale and resale etc and without a way to track these to the source, it is extremely difficult to track the source of the counterfeit products.
Also since fake products do not live up to the standards of the genuine products, usage of these products can be hazardous in the case of electrical goods and pharmaceutical products for example. The products that can be traced to the origin will enjoy a higher trust factor compared to the others that lack traceability.
Reason 4 – Product Recalls
No matter how efficient your quality checks are, there are bound to be product recalls in any industry. Based on how prepared you are for such events, this is going to end up either being a very costly, complex affair that consumes both time and resources or a well organized and considerably cheaper engagement if you have a transparent supply chain and well established traceability.
When manufacturers have evidence that the parts that were shipped complied with international standards of safety then the liability of the company is reduced from thousands of units to a very small number instead.
Reason 5 – increase in Industry Regulations
All industries are looking to enhance their supply chain operations. Depending on the risk counterfeit products present to their business, the sense of urgency may be higher or lower but the pace is bound to quicken when regulations are passed from a national level or from respective organizations that regulate products in their specific industries. Being prepared and being proactive early on is a great way to ensure business profitability.
Reason 6 – Environmental Awareness
Sustainability and the harm of plastics is something that is now a concern for many people around the world. People in general are more inclined to work with businesses that have established processes to make their supply chain environment friendly. Bio degradable packaging for example would appeal to consumers who are inclined to do their part in preserving the environment. Traceability adds value when a person is able to trace the packaging of the products and let the end user know which suppliers the product has been through in their packaging and repackaging journey.
Reason 7 – Social Issues
The global business model also involves operations that are sensitive to many industries. For example, was child labor or forced labor used in the sourcing of the coffee that you are enjoying? Were they paid fairly? Traceability helps identify the actors right from manufacture to the consumer where each actor is responsible in maintaining industry standards. Having a system like this makes it easy to ensure that fair trade was followed and these products are bound to resonate with many consumers.
Although the reasons to implement traceability are strong and numerous, it is neither a cheap or an easy engagement. Implementing this would mean reaching an agreement with stakeholders about what level of transparency is needed to be displayed. This would mean the suppliers are now visible to the public eye as well as the competition. However, this can be solved by adding blockchain and smart contracts based traceability where confidential information flowing through the blockchain is restricted to authorized parties. Read for more info.
At CosmoTrace, we offer premium support and services that can help your business with serialization implementation. Our team of experts will make sure you are up to date with all global traceability regulations and will help in creating a successful long-term serialization strategy.