Packaging traceability BRC questions

I recently got dinged for a minor on packaging traceability and was wondering if you guys could help out. 

We are a apple packing facility and use multiple suppliers for bags, totes, trays, and boxes (and more). The only way we have for recording information on the materials is just from what the supplier prints/provides on a pallet tag. Unfortunately none of this information is unique enough to trace back to a singular bill of lading or lot # from the supplier.

How should/could I go about remediating this so that we can at least trace this back to a particular shipment and supplier?

label/mark packaging when it arrives with the BOL# and then also put that BOL somewhere on production and shipping documents

At least then you can trace it..........pain in the putoot, but easy and straightforward

Or you can assign a lot/batch number of every incoming packagaing material.

BOL# is a great idea, but as an alternative approach, as BOL# sequencing can be all over the place,  lot/batch number is your internal sequential number, that can help you trace the product back.

As indicated above, assign these numbers to your production/shipping docs.

How would that work for receiving multiple cartons of say, 3 pound apple bags, which will get used up at different times? would there be a way of doing it without stickering every single box? 

So lets take the following example:

Supplier A sends 150 bags in June- you assign it as 18-001- then you pack 3000 apples in those bags;

Supplier A sends    75 bags in November- you assign it as 18-002- then you pack 1500 apples in it,

Supplier B sends    75 bags in November- you assign  it as 18-003- then you pack 1500 apples in it,

Given the examples above, now lets say you need to trace back the 1500 apples you packed in November, as long as your packing/shipping documents correctly indicate that you used 18-002, you can trace it back to the supplier.

You can assign the same lot numbers to all the bags received in that PO/BOL.

Hope it helps....

We use the purchase order number that the it was bought under with a letter for each line item. When the full quantity of an item is not delivered together you add delivery sequence to the end (skip this part for the first delivery). It's basically a modular segmented sequence.

• PO (719971)
  • Item (A)
    • Delivery (2)

For example:

PO#: 719971

A - Item 1

B - Item 2

Item 1 is delivered in full and the lot would be 719971A

Item 2 is delivered on two separate dates and the lots would be as follows:

Delivery 1 - 719971A

Delivery 2 - 719971A2

Each item now has a tracking number from the moment it's ordered, which proves to make things much easier all around. It also puts some responsibility on the supplier as they know your lotting system and can be pressured into labeling the cases accordingly at origin. Most of our suppliers had no problem with labeling the cases themselves before they're shipped, though, it's still a struggle with some.

When looking at this like a database you can see it's a pretty flexible core system. It can be easily modified to fit any of your business processes; just add, change, or remove segments.

Another way of identifying your numbers with correlation to received materials could be as follows:

836101

"8" indicating 2018

"361" for the 361st day of the year

and "01" indicating how many shipments on that day from a certain supplier.

This way you could easily organize all received packaging materials according to date received. Could help with a FIFO program/ PRP