Expiry dates and lot traceability in manufacturing

For products with a shelf life, such as paints, glues, food or medicines, two questions matter in production: is a component lot still usable, and which component lots went into a finished lot? Viindoo warns before an expired component lot is consumed, gives the finished lot its own expiration date and keeps the link between the lots for the traceability report.

Who

Production staff with the Manufacturing ‣ User access right; quality staff who trace the lots.

App

Manufacturing, Inventory

Before you start

  • Turn on Lots & Serial Numbers and Expiration Dates and give the products their expiration times, see How to manage product expiration dates. The manufacturing part is installed with the Manufacturing app.

  • Producing needs the Manufacturing ‣ User access right.

The example of this article is a Lacquered oak tray tracked by lot, with an expiration time of 365 days, made from a shelf board and PU wood lacquer, also tracked by lot. Lot LAC-2605 of the lacquer is expired.

How does Viindoo warn about an expired component?

  1. An expired lot carries the Expiration Alert badge; its Expiration Date is in the past.

    An expired lot of lacquer with the Expiration Alert badge

  2. When the order is reserved, expired lots are left out. Here the operator recorded the expired lot by hand in the detailed operations of the component.

    The expired lot recorded on the component of the order

  3. Click Produce All. The window Confirmation names the component and the expired lot. Click Confirm to produce anyway, or Discard to change the lot first.

    The confirmation before using an expired component

When several expired lots are used, the window lists them.

How does the finished lot get its expiration date?

  1. The done order shows its Lot/Serial Number and a Traceability button.

    The done order with its finished lot and the Traceability button

  2. Open the finished lot: its Expiration Date is the production date plus the expiration time of the finished product, here one year, and the other dates follow the times of the product.

    The expiration date of the finished lot

How do I trace the components of a finished lot?

Click Traceability on the done order. The Traceability Report shows the finished lot and, under it, the component lots consumed, here the expired lot LAC-2605. Unfold a line to go further back. The lots are also listed in Manufacturing ‣ Products ‣ Lots/Serial Numbers.

The traceability report of the finished lot with its component lots

Common errors

Problem

What to do

The finished lot has no expiration date.

Tick Expiration Date on the finished product and set its expiration time.

The Traceability button is missing.

It shows on done orders when lots and serial numbers are turned on.

Next steps

See also

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