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Can You Trace the Manufacturing History and Suppliers of Defective Products?

 
In this article, we take a closer look at serial number tracking and traceability in Beas Manufacturing, the production management add-on for SAP Business One.
SAP Business One’s standard functionality supports serial number management and Equipment Card, allowing companies to track individual products after shipment and manage maintenance (Link: Serial Number and maintenance management with SAP Business One). However, it falls short when tracing root causes back to manufacturing processes or suppliers when a defect occurs. It also falls short when it comes to managing the response process in detail, from receiving a complaint to implementing corrective actions.
By leveraging the serial number management and claim management in Beas Manufacturing, you can achieve multi-level data traceability from finished goods down to components. Furthermore, it enables claim management that turns the entire process—from root cause analysis to corrective actions—into a shared knowledge base. Let’s take a closer look at how these functions work and the benefits they provide.
 
 

Feature Overview

 

Serial Number Tracing

Beas Manufacturing enables companies to trace relationships between products and raw materials across multiple levels while accessing related transaction history.
Starting with the serial number of a defective product, users can trace back through production orders, raw material receipts, and QC orders to quickly identify the affected manufacturing process, supplier, and inspection information.
The function supports both trace-back, which identifies the source of a defect, and trace-forward, which determines the products potentially affected by an identified cause.

 

Claim Management

Beas Manufacturing enables companies to manage the entire claim management process, from receiving a complaint and investigating its root cause to recording corrective and preventive actions.
Customer inquiries and complaints can be linked to relevant SAP Business One and Beas Manufacturing data, such as serial numbers and document numbers. This allows companies to go beyond simply recording complaints by storing root causes, corrective actions, and preventive measures as valuable organizational knowledge.
The functionality can be used not only for customer claims, but also for supplier claims and internally identified quality issues, supporting comprehensive quality management across the organization.

 
 

Benefits of Beas Manufacturing Traceability

 
Beas Manufacturing’s enhanced traceability and data visibility provide three key benefits for manufacturers.

1. Faster Root-Cause Analysis and Response

   Quickly identifying documents related to a defective serial number reduces investigation time and enables teams to provide faster, data-driven responses.

2. Precise Scope Identification to Minimize Costs and Workload

   By precisely identifying the serial numbers linked to a defect, companies can avoid unnecessary product retrievals that include unaffected items and minimize costs and workload.

3. Knowledge Management for Company-Wide Quality Improvement

   Visualizing issue of response histories and countermeasures as organizational assets creates a solid framework for systematic quality improvement that does not rely on individuals.

 
 

Build Stronger Quality Through Faster Traceability and Knowledge Management

 
When a defect occurs, quickly identifying its cause through serial number traceability and documenting the claim management process creates lasting value beyond simply resolving individual issues. This knowledge can become a powerful asset for improving overall quality.
If you are interested in the serial number and complaint management capabilities of SAP Business One and Beas Manufacturing, which enable precise data traceability and systematic quality improvement, please feel free to contact us.