Products & Traceability

Set up your product catalog and manage Bills of Materials. Track raw materials from the moment they arrive to the finished product. Run traceability searches and get answers in seconds.

Product Types

Product Types is where you list everything your factory makes. This includes finished goods, semi-finished items, and intermediate products. Other modules – like Work Orders, Production Planner, and Warehouses – use this data to work properly.

For each product type, you fill in these fields: Name (the label operators see), Code (an ID used for API and ERP connections), SKU (for warehouse and sales systems), Unit of Measure (pieces, kilograms, liters, etc.), and a Bill of Materials template listing all materials needed to make one unit. The list also shows how many active work orders use each product type. This gives managers a quick view of demand.

You can mark product types as active or inactive. Inactive types won't show up when creating new work orders. They still appear in old records and reports, so you never lose data.

Use Case 1 – New Product Introduction (NPI): A food company launches a new granola bar. The engineer creates a product type with code GB-CHOC-250, sets the unit to "pcs", and adds a BOM with oats, chocolate chips, honey, and packaging film. The product is ready to schedule right away.

Use Case 2 – SKU Rationalization: A plastics company decides to stop making three slow-selling products. The manager sets them to inactive. No new orders can be created, but all past production and quality data stays safe for audits.

Product Revisions

Products change over time. You might swap a material, update packaging, or adjust a formula for new regulations. Each change needs a new BOM version – without losing the old ones. Product Revisions gives you full version control for your BOMs.

Each revision includes a revision number (auto or manual), an effective date when it becomes the active BOM, a change description of what changed and why, and the full BOM snapshot at that time. New work orders automatically use the latest revision. But you can pick an older one if needed – for example, to fill an order quoted under a previous spec.

Use Case – Regulatory Compliance: A pharma company needs to switch suppliers for an ingredient. The quality team creates Revision 4 of the tablet BOM and documents the change. All new work orders use Revision 4. Revision 3 stays in the system for audits. If a regulator asks "What was in Batch 2024-0892?", the team pulls up the exact BOM revision for that batch.

Materials

The Materials catalog lists every raw material, component, and consumable your factory buys and uses. It is the foundation for inventory tracking, BOM building, and cost tracking.

Key fields include: Name, Type (raw material, component, packaging, consumable), Unit of Measure, Tracking Method (by LOT, serial number, or untracked), Current Stock (total across all warehouses), and BOM Usage (how many products use this material). The tracking method matters most. LOT tracking gives you batch-level traceability. Serial tracking traces individual units. Untracked items (like cleaning supplies) are counted by quantity only.

Use Case – BOM Impact Analysis: A supplier tells you they are discontinuing an adhesive. You open Materials, find it, and see it is used in 14 BOMs. Now you can plan a replacement across all affected products before the last shipment arrives.

Material Lots

Material Lots let you track received materials at the batch level. Every time a shipment arrives, a new lot record is created. You can do this manually or automatically through your ERP or warehouse system.

Each lot tracks: LOT Number (unique ID, often matching the supplier's batch number), Material (linked to your catalog), Received Quantity (how much arrived), Available Quantity (how much is left), Expiration Date (key for food, pharma, and chemicals), and Supplier (linked to the Companies list). The available quantity drops automatically as work orders use it. You always see how much is left in each lot.

Use Case – FIFO Enforcement: A dairy company gets milk powder every week. Each shipment creates a new lot with an expiration date. When operators start a work order, OpenMES suggests the oldest lot first (First In, First Out). This helps reduce waste from expired materials.

Use Case – Supplier Quality Issue: A test finds contamination in LOT-2024-0734 of a resin. The warehouse manager quarantines what is left. The traceability module shows which finished goods used that lot.

Traceability

Traceability is one of the most powerful features in OpenMES. It works in two directions. Forward genealogy asks: "Which products used this LOT?" Backward genealogy asks: "What went into this pallet?" This is essential for compliance in food, pharma, automotive, and aerospace manufacturing.

You can search by Pallet Number, Work Order Number, Material LOT Number, or Serial Number. The results show a tree linking raw material lots to production steps to finished goods pallets. You get answers in seconds, not hours.

Traceability data builds itself as production moves forward. When operators use materials on a work order or palletize finished goods, the system records every link. No extra data entry is needed beyond receiving materials and confirming which lots were used.

Use Case – Product Recall: A beverage company finds that flavoring extract LOT-FL-8821 was contaminated. They search by that LOT number using forward traceability. Instantly, they see every work order, every pallet, and every shipment destination affected. The recall scope is clear in minutes, not days.

Use Case – Customer Complaint: A customer reports a defect in product SN-20240915-0042. The team uses backward traceability to trace it to its work order. They find every raw material lot used, check supplier certificates, and pinpoint the root cause.

Companies / Suppliers

The Companies register lists all outside partners your factory works with. This includes suppliers, sub-contractors, packaging vendors, and customers. Each record stores contact details and tax info. It links to material lots and purchase documents across the system.

Companies list view showing company name, type, contact information, and linked material lots

Keeping your supplier list clean is important for traceability. When a material lot arrives, it links to the supplier. This creates an unbroken chain from supplier to finished product. It helps with supplier audits and narrows recall scope to specific suppliers.

Anomaly Reasons

Anomaly Reasons are preset categories your factory uses to classify production problems. Instead of typing free text that is hard to analyze, operators pick from a list when reporting anomalies.

Common examples: machine jam, wrong material loaded, temperature out of range, foreign object detected, operator error, and tool wear. With standard categories, the Reports module can create Pareto charts. These show which problems happen most often, helping you improve step by step.

Use Case – Continuous Improvement: After three months of data, a Pareto chart shows "machine jam" causes 40% of anomalies on Line 3. The maintenance team finds a worn guide rail, replaces it, and cuts anomalies by 35%.

Scrap Reasons

Scrap Reasons work like Anomaly Reasons but focus on units that are thrown away or rejected. Each scrap event gets a reason, so you can analyze scrap in detail through the Reports module.

Common scrap reasons include: out of tolerance, visual defect, contamination, packaging damage, and test failure. Separating anomalies from scrap lets managers analyze process disruptions and quality losses independently. Both affect OEE, but differently – anomalies impact Availability while scrap impacts Quality.

Process Segments

Process Segments are the individual steps in your production process. A product's route is made of one or more segments run in order – for example: mixing, forming, baking, cooling, packaging.

Each segment can be linked to specific lines or workstation types. It has its own target cycle time and can include quality checkpoints. The Production Planner uses these segments to schedule work. OEE calculations use them to measure performance at each step.

Production Lines

Production Lines are the physical lines on your shop floor. Each line groups workstations that run one or more process segments together. The production line is the main unit for scheduling, monitoring, and OEE reporting.

Key fields include: Line Name, Assigned Area (linked to the factory structure), Current Status (running, idle, maintenance, changeover), and the Active Work Order in progress. You can set target speeds and availability schedules. These feed into OEE calculations and capacity planning.

Production Issues

Production Issues collects all problems reported during production across all lines and shifts. Operators can report issues from the shop floor terminal. Supervisors can add them from the admin panel. Each issue has a timestamp, severity, affected line, description, and resolution status.

Issues act as your factory's operational log. Unlike anomalies (tied to specific events), issues cover bigger concerns. These include equipment problems across multiple orders, safety notes, tooling requests, or quality concerns needing investigation. You can filter by date, line, severity, and status for daily meetings and shift handovers.

Use Case – Shift Handover: At the end of the night shift, the supervisor reviews open issues. They add notes to three solved ones and flag two unsolved ones as high priority. The morning supervisor sees them right away on the dashboard.

← Work Orders

Warehouses & Inventory →