Grzegorz Sokołowski
Management of traceability process in the food supply chain
Zarządzanie procesem traceability w łańcuchu dostaw produktów żywnościowych
Doctoral dissertation summary
Dissertation supervisor: prof. dr hab. Maciej Szymczak, prof. zw. UEP
Department of International Logistics
Poznań 2018
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1. Reasons for the choice of dissertation topic
Traceability is the ability to track and trace the flow of goods in supply chains and
networks, including the registration of parameters that identify these goods and all locations
relaed to this flow. Ensuring the safety of products delivered to the market involves registering
and collecting data on them at every stage of the supply chain, therefore at the level of each of
the enterprises participating in this chain. The most important legal requirements for supply
chains in the food and nutrition industry result from EU Regulation No. 178/2002. The essence
of traceability is the ability to tracking and tracing of the raw material or the product. In the
other words, the ability to identify or obtain all data about the raw material, processing steps it
has been subjected to until the finished product is obtained and vice versa, from the finished
product to the raw material.
One of the basic functions of traceability in the supply chain is to ensure effective
withdrawal of products from the market in the case of recall. The withdrawal of products from
markets has many causes, e.g.: inadequate product quality, bad labeling or a situation where the
product is dangerous to health and life. Consumers suffer from the withdrawal of products, but
it brings losses for companies. And it is not only about a one-off withdrawal campaign, but it
is related to the image and prestige of the company. In 2016. Poland has notified 27 notifications
within the RAPEX1 system and 135 notifications under the RASFF2 system. It is estimated that
the number of "silent withdrawals" from the market, without notifying RASFF, may concern
even several hundred products during the year. Withdrawing products in a timely manner also
reduces potential financial losses and preserves consumer confidence in the quality of their
favorite brands. Ensuring the safety of products delivered to the market involves registering and
collecting data on them at every stage of the supply chain, so at the level of each of the
companies involved in this chain.
Based on many years of research carried out by the author, and taking into consideration
the data on the growing number of notifications under the RASFF system, it can be concluded
that Polish producers and distributors of food products, accordance with the law have
1 The RAPEX system – the main and immediate purpose of the system is to ensure a rapid exchange of information
between Member States and the European Commission on hazardous products and measures taken in a given
country, to exclude or limit their introduction to the market, and possibly use. 2 The RASFF system – the European system of alerting about dangerous food products applicable in all European
Union countries.
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traceability systems that theoretically prevent crisis situations. However, while it can be stated
that they are operative, it is difficult to agree with the fact of their effectiveness.
When analyzing the effectiveness of traceability processes in enterprises, attention
should be paid to four basic areas and problems generated in this area:
data management
a problem with data link in IT systems,
the problem of the mixing of batches of raw materials or production components
in production and the lack of information about this in the flow of internal
information,
the problem of the lack of linking between the identification of the batch of the
raw material with the lot of the finished product,
identification
the problem of identification the content of heterogeneous logistic units,
the problem of using the bar code labels from suppliers of raw materials or
production components by producers,
automation
the problem of manual data collection,
the lack of the possibility of automatic control of inventory levels, which are
required in crisis situations,
sharing data
the problem of the lack of effective communication with business partners, e.g.
in a crisis situation,
the problem of inaccessibility of all attributes required in situations of
withdrawal of a given production lot from the market.
2. Dissertation objectives and research hypotheses
The above-mentioned issues directly refer to the main research problems identified by
the author of this dissertation, which are:
1) difficulty in determining what has an impact on the traceability efficiency in the
supply chain in the context of key enablers of the flow of information process
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2) the lack of a homogeneous reference model for enterprises in the supply chain
of food products taking into account the application of the same traceability
standards (throughout the supply chain).
Considering the traceability issues, it can be assumed that it is a part of the discipline of
management sciences, and more specifically in the area of supply chain management or
logistics. Regardless of the variety of approaches and interpretations (Rutkowski, 2004) of the
term, it is undeniable that key issue to supply chain management is always the management of
the flow of goods and information related to these goods. This is a key element from the
traceability point of view
The main goal of this work is to develop and study the effectiveness of reference models
for the traceability process in food supply chain enterprises. Whereas the following specific
objectives should be mentioned:
analysis and definition of critical traceability events and key data elements in food
supply chain enterprises,
development of reference models for traceability: lot - based and event - based
traceability for food supply chain enterprises,
estimating the effectiveness of traceability processes in enterprises in the supply
chain of food products based on index analysis.
Guided by the problems and established goals of the dissertation, the author defined the
following research hypotheses:
[H1] the use of universal identification and communication standards in the
food supply chain influences the increase of traceability effectiveness in each
enterprise in this chain,
[H2] the use of automatic identification techniques and communication tools
(electronic messages or services registering events in the supply chain)
contributes to the increase of the effectiveness of traceability proces.
3. Research methods
In order to verify the hypotheses, the author's original research methodology was used,
mainly based on the processes analysis, as well as the estimation and simulation of changes in
the traceability process as a result of use reference models. This methodology is based on the
following steps:
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1) operational analysis including the following elements:
conducting an interview in the area of the process, which is examined with
the persons responsible for the given proces,
identification of the traceability and recall processes in 3 entities of the food
supply chain,
mapping of identified processes with the iGrafx® tool based on the BPMN
2.0 standard described in the ISO / IEC 19510 (International Organization for
Standardization [ISO] 2013).
2) parameterization – determination of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for
current and reference traceability models: lot - based and event - based
traceability,
3) defining places of potential process changes through the analysis of Critical
Traceability Events (CTE) and Key Data Elements (KDE) in the process area
and the use of identification and communication standards,
4) development of current operating models (AS IS analytical models: traceability
and recall) and target models TO BE – after implementing changes resulting
from the application of the reference models (lot - based and event - based
traceability) for:
each of the actors of the supply chain,
the whole supply chain,
5) verification of the model through a simulation experiment using the AS IS and
TO BE models: lot - based and event - based traceability for 3 surveyed entities,
using the iGrafx® tool based on the BPMN standard,
6) synthesis and preparation of research results.
The selection of indicators that served the parameterization of process models was
dictated by the need to obtain results that enable checking the hypothesis of this dissertation,
which concerns the impact of the application of identification and communication standards in
achieving greater efficiency of the traceability proces.
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4. Dissertation structure
The structure of the dissertation includes five chapters, however, it should be noted that
Chapter 5 summarizes the considerations contained in the preceding chapters by analytical and
synthetic presentation of the traceability research results.
The subject of the author's interest in the first chapter of this work is the supply chain,
and what is connected with managing this chain. In this area, there are a number of literature
items that quite accurately describe the rules, requirements, and explain the definition etc.
However, the problem arises when a particular area of management should be examined,
namely the traceability management or traceability. In the following subsections, the author
attempts to place traceability in the sciences about supply chain management. In addition, it
presents what are the legal and normative requirements regarding traceability in Poland for
enterprises involved in the production and disytibution of food. In the final part of this chapter,
key elements of the correct implementation of traceability in enterprises are indicated
The second chapter presents the basic functions related to traceability in the food
supply chain enterprise. It describes what functions should be performed internally and which
should be performed by external traceability in the company. In addition, traceability examples
are described in two supply chains: meat and fish. The last part of the chapter describes the
method of implementation of traceability supported by the use of global identification and
communication standards as well as tools facilitating communication throughout the supply
chain.
The third chapter is primarily the development of two reference models of traceability
processes: lot-based and event-based traceability. This chapter shows and describes the path to
the final model form:
problem identification,
modeling aim,
assumptions,
the model form,
tools for describing and parameterizing the model,
model verification.
Based on the developed models and using the assumptions related to the applied identification
and communication standards, conducted research reflected in Chapter 5.
In the fourth chapter, the author focused on characterizing the research methodology
used in the research, which results are described in the following chapter. The research method
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used in this doctoral dissertation represents a group of quantitative methods, that is, those that
provide answers to questions about how much, how often, in what proportion, what size, etc.,
the occurence or processes to be examined. The research method applied during the
implementation of the work is based on inductive reasoning, that is, acting in accordance with
the principle: from general to specific. The fourth chapter describes the research tools used in
the study, scope and method of testing
The last, fifth chapter of the dissertation is presenting the results of research based on
process analysis, carried out by the author in three food supply chain companies in 2014-2016.
According to the methodology described in Chapter 4, research results focus on showing
differences resulting from changes in analyzed processes. These changes result from the use of
lot-based and event-based traceability models. The research results are primarily the values of
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Critical Traceability Events (CTE) and Key Data
Elements (KDE) analysis separated within each of the analyzed processes.
Final conclusions that synthetically summarize the results of the research presented in
the fifth chapter are presented in the Ending
The literature used in this work is a collection of items in the field of science on
management, in particular, supply chain management and process management. In addition, the
author used a number of articles and reports relating to the food industry and issues related to
the safety of products on the market. The last group of sources used in this dissertation are legal
acts, specifications of global and industry standards used in the supply chain of food products.
5. Research results, final conclusions and directions for further research
Considering all the results of the process research for both individual companies and the
entire supply chain, the most important applications from the point of view of the present study
are as follows:
in the area of CTE and KDE:
a unified data collection in the lot-based and event-based traceability models
is as follows:
SSCC of logistics unit
GTIN of product/grouping package
lot numer of product/raw material
GLN of receiver/supplier
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standard messages required for the implementation of the lot-based
traceability model are the following:
DESADV
RECADV
PRN
PRC
event registration in the event-based traceability model takes place taking into
account the following events:
object event
transformation event
aggregation event.
in the area of KPI:
producer – the highest efficiency will be obtained in lot-based and event-
based traceability models in relation to the receipt and delivery activities in
the traceability process:
percentage commitment of process resources – reduction by
36.62% in relation to the AS IS model
distributor – the highest efficiency will be obtained in lot-based and event-
based traceability models in relation to the receipt and delivery processes
average process execution time – a reduction by 78.90%
compared to the AS IS model
percentage commitment of process resources – reduction by
93,68% in relation to the AS IS model (it concerns the business
role – office)
retailer – the highest efficiency will be obtained in lot-based and event-based
traceability models in relation to the receipt proces:
average total work time in the process - reduction by 48.44%
this applies to all entities in the supply chain:
KPI values for lot-based and event-based traceability models are
identical; however, in the context of the flow of information with
many business partners, the greater potential for optimization is
demonstrated by the event-based traceability model, which
results from the nature of the operation of this type of data
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exchange, the relation: one to many / many to one; registration of
events and changes in the status of tracked production batches
can be available immediately, and there is no need to create
dedicated messages in one-to-one relationships, as in the case of
EDI. In addition, EPCIS used in the event-based traceability
model can be used to record internal process events without
sharing these data with business partners.
in the area of recall:
by applying unified identification and communication standards, it is possible
to more effectively handle with recall proces,
lot-based and event-based traceability models allow very fast control of the
traceability of the product history (eg. what, when and from whom were
receipted, and what, when and to whom was delivered in the context of a
tracked product / production batch); this can be useful additionally, for
example for reporting, controlling and marketing purposes.
The results obtained during the survey and after simulation of process models of
traceability confirm the first hypothesis [H1] that the application of universal identification
and communication standards in the food supply chain influences the increase of
traceability in the enterprises of this chain. The consequence of implementing reference
models confirming the validity of this hypothesis will be:
increasing the transparency and safety of the supply chain of food products by
applying uniform standards by all participants in the supply chain,
increasing the level of credibility and correctness of data through the use of universal
and uniform standards in activities related to the protection against the distribution
of products withdrawn in the producer's warehouse, distributor and the back of the
retail store.
Another hypothesis [H2], presenting the view that the use of automatic identification
techniques and communication tools (electronic messages or service registering events in
the supply chain) contributes to increasing the efficiency of the traceability process has
also been proven as part of analytical and research work in this dissertation. In this case, the
consequence of implementing reference models confirming the validity of the hypothesis will
be:
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reduction of labor consumption in the traceability process, in particular in areas:
reduction of the time of some activities (mainly: receipt, completion for
delivery)
eliminating duplicate activities
standardization of the form of generated electronic documents.
Developed and verified simulated models can be support for food supply chain
companies that aim to implement or modernize traceability processes. The entire traceability
area in enterprises, often is treated as an element of the quality assurance system or product
safety system. This dissertation proves that traceability should always be considered from the
perspective of many processes that are implemented in the company. It results from the essence
of traceability – it is an immanent feature of process management in the company and whenever
the processes concern goods and the flow of information about tchem – companies should
remember about this traceability feature. In the other words, when the issues of identifying
goods in the supply chain of food products and information flows or sharing information about
these goods are taken into consideration, it is necessary to have an appropriate traceability
model in the company.
The supply chain management, in accordance with the definitions cited in this paper
(Griffin, 1996), is primarily the integration of business processes inside and outside of the
enterprises on which the quality of delivered products depends. In the context of process
management, usually we deal with many processes. One of them is the traceability process
permeating the internal and external processes of the supply chain entities. Process management
is an indispensable mechanism that enables optimal and efficient process execution within
a given company as well as the entire supply chain (Jarzębowski, 2012). The influence of the
developed reference models on the analysed processes proves how important it is within the
framework of process management of the company to take into account the conditions related
to the collection and processing of data regarding traceability.
Keeping in mind the results of the research and the information collected during the
analytical work, it can be stated that the key issue for traceability are data, namely their
collection, processing and sharing in the supply chain. The traceability system can of course be
operate manually without IT support. However, the efficiency of such a system will be low.
Therefore, big companies decided to implement or expand existing IT systems in their
organizations in the direction of support or modernization traceability processes. The list of key
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requirements for IT systems supporting the traceability functionality in the presented
reference models is mainly:
identification and correct interpretation of GS1 identifiers,
implementation of automated receipt, completion and delivery of goods,
generating labels that comply with GS1 standards,
generating EDI messages that comply with GS1 standards (GS1XML or EANCOM),
record of relations in the system: GTIN number, lot of raw material and ID of internal
location ID,
record of relations in the system: GTIN number, lot of product and ID of internal
location ID,
record of relations in the system: SSCC numer and other attributes of logistics unit
(lot number, expiration date, etc.),
record of relations in the system: receipt id, supplier and supply content,
record of relations in the system: delivery id, recipient and delivery content,
the ability to generate traceability reports in different variants of the data relationship,
in the case of event-based traceability: record of process events in the EPCIS
database,
in the case when IT system operates in an environment that requires data exchange
between other IT systems – the need for interoperability in data sharing between
systems,
backup data in the database.
In addition to the conclusions and system requirements, the following is a summary of
several problem areas that may be the direction of further research conducted to achieve even
better results relating to the effectiveness of traceability processes:
1) The problem of determining the size level of a production batch - a sufficient record
of relationships in traceability systems is the identification to the batch level of the
product / raw material; however, the problem and area for further research is what
the size of the party should be determined. There are many methods for determining
the size of a production batch, e.g. static, periodic, optimal procedures, however
none of them takes into account the ratio of the cost of withdrawal to the size of the
production batch, i.e. determining the optimal batch size of traceability.
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2) The problem of determining the area of data relativity – what data should be linked
within the traceability system is known to companies in the supply chain of food
products and results from legal requirements and standards; however, what data will
be finally included in the traceability data collection depends primarily on the of the
processes flow within the enterprise and its business role in the supply chain (raw
material supplier, manufacturer, distributor, retailer, logistics operator). While for
most companies performing the same role in the supply chain, the traceability data
collection is similar, but the efficiency of exchanging these data depends on the
diversity of the processes in these companies.
3) Simulation study of recall in the supply chain – testing the traceability process in
enterprises indicated potential improvement points and showed measurable benefits
from the implementation of lot-based and event-based traceability models; however,
there is still an area that, due to the sensitivity of the company's data, do not share
and are probably not aware of what such research could bring to them. The
parameterization of the recall area and research this process in the context of the
application of the developed models could provide important data for the estimation
of crisis situations.
4) Simulation study of benefits along the entire supply chain – same as in point 3,
enterprises in the entire supply chain of food products could use reference models
to examine process efficiency in the context of the whole chain; unfortunately, this
is complicated from the business point of view, because showing, for example, the
marginal benefits of the implementation of the lot-based traceability model at the
manufacturer and significant benefits from the implementation of the same model
at the distributor is not tantamount to making a decision on sharing costs between
these two partners. However, in closed supply chains such as: a retailer with a
defined number of suppliers, it is worth conducting such a study, although probably
the decision will be made on the side of the entity having a stronger market position.
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Bibliography
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