Very interesting topic indeed.
IMO, Mgourley is totally right when he said “That can be as easy or complex as you want it to be” it depends on, basically, how much money are you to prepared to lose or the level of complexity you can manage in your factory according to data recording.
All the inputs from the members are right ; howewer I would always take a deep thinking about MY factory and the reality of my production. There is not a right answer.
Regarding the theatrical scenario, 792404’s concern, I do not see any problem as long as your system is loading with data according to new added products ( different lots ) during production ( not only at start).
Going back to previous topics related to this traceability issue : ¿ one week seems extremely long? Again, depends on the situation. For instance, let’s think on an agricultural seasonal product. Let`s imagine all your providers are small size, this is, you will receive small batches/lots of many providers. In this case the lot of your raw material will be “ the year of harvest”.
Another example, let’s think of those huge silos containing powder or liquid food products.
Somebody during the discussion referred to “production date” as an option to set the lot code. Well, let’s think on a product whose production is taken 2 days ¿ what production date to choose? Again, it is worthy a deep thinking. As an alternative we can use the packing date.
And so on.
I must confess I was very surprised when I read the quote posted by Charles C. related to FDA. Thanks so much Charles C. I will take a look to that. I am not familiar with USA legislation ¿ is that compulsory or it is just a recommendation?
Esther