ERP or not? Food companies evaluate technology solutions to comply with the Bioterrorism Act

At the extremity of the all food manufacturers, including cheer packaging which touches food production must comply with the Bioterrorism Act of 2002 Larger companies were to have complet this task more than a year ago; now smooth the smallest food manufacturing and packaging firms must grapple with the notion and implementation of destiny traceability and record keeping.

From raw materials received and warehoused, to preparation and packaging of final regimen products, to the sealed containers en road to distribution centers, retailers, restaurants and end-user consumers-a four hour window is mandated by the agency of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the Bioterrorism Act to explain exactly where the subsistence (ingredients and packaging) has traveled.

The FDA estimates that about 420000 rations facilities are required to register below the act and increasingly quality assurance managers are looking to technology resources (existing in-house or acquirable) that will assist in meeting this compliance requirement.

Lucia Falek, QA manager for Butterball Farms, says, "The part of quality managers has changed dramatically since the act was passed. The event for non-compliance is very high-priced so executive management is turning to quality managers to commend and 'handle' this issue. From now upon quality managers will have a more significant voice in technology selection."

a certain quantity of Enterprise Resource Planning software solutions have added ad hoc solutions in a last dash effort to confident additional sales or keep popular clients content. Other ERP firms recognized the impact of the Bioterrorism Act four years ago and have carefully erected viable and cost-effective solutions to fit compliance.

According to Rebecca Gill, vice president of TGI Ltd manufacturers of Enterprise 21 ERP the following functions are critical to fitting compliance with the Act:

* replete tracking of raw material dooms through manufacturing;

* replete tracking of finished good fates through shipment to customer;

* out and out reporting on lot genealogy showing all usage of apportionments in from vendor, through manufacturing piece of work and to end user;

* Ability to question end-user sales order and diocese all raw material and finished advantageous lots used for specific shipment;

* Ability to question lot from vendor or manufacturing and diocese all end-users shipped to;

* Ability to track doom properties with allowable "criteria" for each lot

Brad Sacks, chief executive officer and global managing director with More Than Gourmet based in Akron, OH uses Enterprise 21 ERP software through TGI Ltd.

Sacks says the company is able to comply with the Bioterrorism act and relies upon recall policies: "It's instantaneous if raw material farmer has bad product. The raw material apportionment code makes way through the manufacturing a whole ... we know where each pound of ingredient ended up in finished crops The Enterprise 21 manufacturing combination of parts to form a whole can query lot code and where finished fruits went to ... including which customer and warehouse."

Other ERP solution providers include BatchMaster, Geac, Ros a whole s Inc. and Pronto North America.

a certain number of technology firms are inventing non-ERP solutions (although integration with ERP is possible) to address the act. Vigilistics has a certain number of clever tools and methods to render certain compliance, yet is focused solely upon the dairy industry at this time.

Until the seal is shivered and chain of custody relinquished, cheer and packaging firms must be armed with the necessary technology solutions to rejoin immediately to the FDA. At near most small food and packaging firms appear ill-prepared to comply by the agency of the end-of-the-year deadline as they continue to evaluate their options.

For more information:

BatchMaster

800-999-5711; www.batchmaster.com

Geac

781-672-5900; www.geac.com

Pronto North America

952-942-5858; www.prontoerp.com

Ros a whole s Inc.

770-351-9600; www.rossinc.com

TGI Ltd

800-837-0028; www.tgiltd.com

Vigilistics

714-619-0741; www.vigilistics.com

Thomas Cutler is a leading manufacturing journalist and CEO of TR Cutler Inc. (www.trcutlerinc.com). He may be reached at 954-486-7562

Thomas Cutler

Contributing Writer

COPYRIGHT 2006 Stagnito Communications

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