“Our track and trace system before was rather argues. It was the QA department partnering with another department Resource Planning and trying to understand based on windows we would set were all of our ingredients ended up both in a frontward tracking and a backwards tracking. Although we were proud of how we could track. I think we realized having several systems assisting the warehouse master system was probably old, antiquated and needed to be better supported and simplified. So the Datex system has allowed that to be boiled down into a push of a button and we have the report, and we know forward and backwards where the entire product, ingredients, packaging and everything is at.
I think before if I was to compare the level of comfort to what we have now. We had some pain points before we couldn’t track and trace or packaging material. We had talked about it for at least a year and a half ahead of time trying to figure out how to do it in the old system. We never got that accomplished and now I would say that pain factor has gone way down and now I have a lot of confidence in our ability to track not only the ingredients but the packaging material. I think the regulatory obligations we have in our industry as a manufacturer of food we are very highly regulated by the government. We also have demands placed upon us by our wholesale customers regarding food safety and lot track and trace is always the pinnacle of that. Of being able to handle a disastrous event and nobody wants to think about that but as a manufacturer we feel that we have our ducks in a row, Datex supports that. We are vulnerable thou from the stand point of all of our suppliers could end up calling us up at any given moment and saying you know that product we shipped you well it has a problem now you have to track and trace it. We are in this chain of distribution and being in that chain of distribution makes you vulnerable even if you have all your systems buttoned up. So now I’m confident with the Datex system we can be Johnny on the spot with getting what we need for information in the event of a catastroffice type of event. We don’t want to have that happen, but obviously you have to have something that supports that.“
Vanita Baumgartner
Dir. Of Operations of Food Manufacturing
Colony Brands
Madison, WI USA