Lot Tracking and Recalls in Business Central for Food & Beverage

For food and beverage companies, traceability is a requirement, not a feature. Customers, auditors and regulators expect you to know which lots went into which finished goods and which customers received them. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central covers the core of this out of the box, provided it is set up correctly from the start.

Item tracking codes: the foundation

Traceability in Business Central starts with item tracking codes, assigned to each item that needs tracking. The key settings for food companies are:

• Lot specific tracking: requires a lot number on every inbound and outbound transaction for the item.
• Lot warehouse tracking: carries the lot number through warehouse documents such as receipts, put-aways, picks and shipments.
• Expiration date entry: makes users record an expiration date when a lot is received or produced.
• Strict expiration posting: prevents shipping or consuming lots after their expiration date.

Decide these settings item by item during design. Changing tracking on items that already have inventory is possible but messy, so it pays to get it right before go-live.

Lot numbers and lot information

Lot numbers can come from the supplier or be assigned by number series when goods are received or produced. Lot number information cards let you record extra data per lot, such as certificates of analysis or quality notes, and you can block a lot so it cannot be used while it is on hold.

FEFO picking

Most food companies want to ship or consume the lot that expires first. Business Central supports first-expired, first-out (FEFO) picking at locations set up for it, so suggested picks follow expiration dates instead of whatever bin is closest. FEFO depends on expiration dates being recorded consistently, which is another reason to make expiration entry mandatory.

Production and lot genealogy

In manufacturing, consumption of tracked ingredients and output of tracked finished goods are recorded on production orders. Because both sides carry lot numbers, Business Central can trace forward and backward through production.

Running a recall with Item Tracing

The Item Tracing page is where traceability pays off. Starting from a lot number, you can trace:

• Forward (usage): which production orders consumed an ingredient lot, which finished goods lots came out, and which customers received them.
• Backward (origin): which supplier lots went into a finished goods lot.

We recommend running a mock recall as part of user acceptance testing. If it takes more than a few minutes to answer which customers received a lot, something in the setup or process needs fixing.

Common gaps to plan for

Standard Business Central handles traceability well. Some food and beverage requirements usually need either process design or an industry add-on from Microsoft AppSource:

• Catch weight items sold by weight but stocked by case.
• Formula and batch management with yield and potency.
• Allergen management and quality control workflows.
• EDI with large retail and foodservice customers.

The right answer depends on your volume and complexity. We often see companies buy an add-on for a requirement standard functionality could cover, and the reverse.

Getting it right

Traceability is one of the areas where early design decisions matter most. Read more about how we implement Business Central for food and beverage companies, or talk to an architect about your traceability requirements.