Identification and Traceability

One method used to control production or both products and services is identification and traceability. This can take place in many forms including: part labels, job travelers/word orders/route sheet, process validation worksheet, lot control, “inspected” labels, or any means to identify outputs and their status.

The difference between identification and traceability is: You identify a product by putting a tag, sticker, or other permanent marker. Traceability can help in finding out what all went into making this product.

IATF 16949 has supplementary information for Identification and Traceability which states:

• The purpose and traceability is to support identification from start to finish points for products received by the customer, or in any field that contains quality or safety nonconformities. The organization is required to implement identification and traceability processes as described:
• The organization is required to conduct an analysis of internet, customer, and regulatory traceability requirements for all automotive products. This includes, developing and documenting traceability plans, which are based on the levels of risk and failure for customers, consumers, and employees.
• The Automobile industry needs to place a unique number on its products. Identification is necessary to monitor the inspection status. For traceability you would want to be able to identify the product and the batch number so the company can pull out all the production and test reports for that batch. If specified by customer the organization must include serialized numbers for each individual part.

To learn more about traceability see: AIAG Traceability Guideline

• Learn more about the AIAG 

Within our Forms Package or included with our Identification and Traceability Procedure, we offer the documentation templates needed to ensure the requirements around identification and traceability are met.