The metallic industry faces significant challenges with the absence or inaccurate data and information shared throughout the value chain, both upstream and downstream. In order to ensure supply chain resilience, improve quality assurance and drive sustainability improvements through the value chain, a lot more data need to be shared in a trusted and traceable manner throughout the value chain. But how can your business act to stay on top of supply chain traceability?

The change in supply chain traceability is strong, not the least because of the digitalization, opening new possibilities and windows of opportunities. To leverage and stay strong in the competition, staying on top of supply chain traceability is more important than ever.  

In the steel industry supply chain traceability is crucial when it comes to the identification and tracking of materials and products throughout the value chain, including mining, processing, manufacturing, and distribution.

A well set and secured traceability management help you ensure the quality, safety, and compliance of steel products from end-to-end.

Gain customer trust with your supply chain traceability

Customers of today want to make more informed decisions, and sustainability is gaining importance as a deciding factor for purchase. A well-defined process for traceability management is extremely beneficial in meeting these demands, as it enables you to track each step in the production process and identify any potential issues quickly. This allows faster call for action to minimize risk and increase customer value.

Many industries have strict traceability regulations and require companies to provide detailed records of the production process. In case of a product recall, a traceability system can help identify affected products quickly, reducing the time it takes to get them off the market and minimizing the impact on consumers. An improved quality control can also enhance customer satisfaction. By providing your customers with more valid product information, including materials used, production process, and other quality and sustainability data, you increase customer trust and confidence in your brand.

The link between material certificate management and traceability

There is a strong link between certificate management and traceability in industries such as steel manufacturing, where product quality and safety are paramount, and where material certificates play a critical role in ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and demonstrating product quality and safety.

In the steel industry, material certificate management is a critical component of traceability, an enabler for manufacturers, and other stakeholders, to verify the quality, safety, and compliance of the products at every stage of the supply chain. By maintaining accurate, up-to-date certificates and other documentation, manufacturers can provide a clear audit trail of their products, which is essential for building trust and maintaining regulatory compliance.

How can your traceability management benefit from a digital solution?

Many manufacturing companies are facing challenges with how to efficiently track supply chain data, manual workload, and insufficient information exchange along the value chain. A digital solution can help you in a number of ways in taking the right steps to improve your traceability management.

With a digital solution you can automate data collection at every stage of the production process, from raw material sourcing to final product delivery. This enables you to process large volumes of accurate and real-time data, for more valid and advanced analytics and reporting. It will also help you identify trends and make more data-driven decisions to improve product quality, reduce waste, and optimize the supply chain, which all are essential for an effective traceability management.  

A greater transparency is another benefit a digital solution can provide, enabling stakeholders to track products and materials in a more effective way. This improves accountability and enhances trust between different stakeholders, including suppliers, manufacturers, and customers. In line with that, a more streamlined communication could improve collaboration, and help ensure that everyone involved is on the same page regarding product quality, compliance, and delivery.

Supply chain collaboration and continuous improvement is key

A lot is happening that drives the need for greater digital transformation and supply chain optimization. Agility, flexibility, and visibility are crucial factors for manufacturers to secure resilience in their supply chain traceability.  

Another important factor is supporting continuous improvement, as well as to ensure consistency and accuracy. Proper training and up-skilling for employees is an important key in the efforts to improve your traceability management. This includes both new effective ways-of-working, standardized processes and solutions, as well as how to comply with regulations, and provide the best customer values.

What are the traceability challenges in your company? We meet a lot of stakeholders along the metallic value chain that are striving to keep pace with rising customer demands for accurate and detailed traceability data, where the exchange of data within the value chain is crucial. Check out this on-demand webinar, based on a real customer demonstration case, to explore how these challenges can be met.  

https://www.chaintraced.com/posts/traceability-webinar-21-2-2023

Watch on-demand webinar - The value of exchanging data

Austin Johnson

Solution Architect
Austin has previously worked as a Functional Consultant in a multinational IT company. Focus was to understand business requirements and deliver solutions with a lookout on easing client specific issues.