Product Recall Software Added

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A fully integrated facility for product batch and recall management has been released by PULSE Logistics Systems (PLS) as part of its warehouse management system.

Targeted for any operation where tracking of product batches is crucial, PULSE notes particular relevance to the pharmaceutical and food sectors.

PULSE director Kerry Hutchings said, "the need to one day initiate a product recall is a large potential headache that haunts a great many firms. "In certain countries, local legislation makes such recall capabilities mandatory in some industries.

"Indeed in Australia, not only are substantial fines cited, but in extreme instances of non compliance company directors may be liable to imprisonment.

"Even without statutory requirements, corporate responsibility and marketing reputation can be equally compelling reasons for confronting the issue head on. And to do so long before the potential problem becomes a reality."

Hutchings said very few systems currently in place had the ability to manage batch numbers to the extent needed to effectively implement even a limited recall.

"Where systems are in place they are, almost without exception, highly error prone," he said. It is also likely that they would be extremely disruptive to the business, would take longer than appropriate to 'switch on', and overall be relatively expensive to maintain."

With the PULSE capabilities, users are presented with two options, referred to as "batch recording" and "batch tracking".

With the former, batch numbers are entered into the WMS system as designated goods received into the warehouse.

As those products progressively move through the operation, the system then fully tracks and records the specific batch numbers of each individual product unit by current location.

With the tracking alternative, batch numbers are simply recorded at the time orders are picked.