The recall notice arrives at half past four
A manufacturer emails a recall notice for one batch of a product you stock. They want to know how much you received, how much you still hold, and which of your customers had it. Your system can list every customer who bought that product in the last three months. It cannot say which of them got the affected batch, because batch codes were never recorded after the pallet arrived.
So you contact everyone who bought the product, the warehouse team checks every case in stock by hand, and the office spends the evening on the phone. Customers who received a different batch are worried for nothing. You cannot confidently say you reached everyone who needed to know.
The gap between goods-in and dispatch
Batch codes are on every case, but recording them takes a moment that busy goods-in and picking teams skip. Many wholesale stock systems can track batches, but the feature is switched off because it was seen as extra work. Without the batch on the pick, the link between a batch and a customer is lost the moment the case leaves the shelf.
| Point | What should be recorded | What often is |
|---|---|---|
| Goods-in | Batch and date per pallet | Quantity only |
| Putaway | Batch per location | Location only |
| Picking | Batch per order line | Nothing |
| Dispatch | Delivery and customer | Delivery note |
What a slow trace costs
Recalls come with pressure from the manufacturer, and sometimes from the authorities, to act quickly. A trace that takes a day instead of an hour leaves affected stock on customers' shelves longer. Contacting every customer rather than the right ones damages confidence for no reason. And the time pulls the office and warehouse off everything else, often at short notice.
Traceability is also something larger customers, especially in food service and retail, ask about when you are being approved as a supplier. A clear answer helps you win that business.
The batch capture and trace we build
- At goods-in, scanning a case or pallet label captures the batch code and date. Where suppliers send advance shipping notices with batch data, it is pre-filled for staff to confirm.
- Stock locations hold batches, either in your stock system if it supports them or in a linked layer alongside it.
- At picking, the handheld records the batch taken for each order line, and suggests the oldest one first.
- Deliveries link order lines, batches and customers, so the chain from supplier to customer is complete.
- A trace report takes a product and batch, and lists every customer, delivery date and quantity, plus remaining stock by location, with contact details.
- The same report can export a customer contact list for your recall notice, and log who was contacted and when.
How you run a recall, what you tell customers and who you notify are set by your own procedures and advisers. The tool gives you the facts quickly; it does not replace those decisions.
When the next notice arrives
Someone types the batch number into the trace screen. The list of affected customers and remaining stock appears. The warehouse quarantines the stock by location, the office contacts only the customers who had it, and the manufacturer gets their figures the same afternoon. Running a mock recall becomes a quick exercise you can repeat rather than a day's work.
Could you trace a batch today?
- Batch codes are not recorded at goods-in.
- Pickers do not record which batch they took.
- A recall would mean contacting every customer who bought the product.
- You have never run a mock recall, or it took most of a day.
- Customers have asked about your traceability and the answer was vague.