How a food processor built full batch traceability in 14 weeks with ERPNext
A mid size packaged food manufacturer replaced paper batch records with ERPNext and built end to end traceability across 60 plus SKUs without stopping a single production shift.
A surprise FSSAI audit, paper batch records, and 6 hours to trace one defective lot.
This packaged food manufacturer ran 60 SKUs across snacks, ready to cook mixes, and bottled sauces. Production used real ingredients with real expiry dates, and every batch had to be traceable from raw material lot to retail shelf. On paper, they had a batch tracking process. In practice, it lived in a thick register on the production manager's desk and a stack of supplier GRN slips in the stores room.
The crisis came when a retail buyer reported a quality complaint on one batch of masala mix. The team needed to identify which raw material lot had gone into that batch, which other finished batches used the same lot, and where each of those batches had been dispatched. It took 6 hours of frantic flipping through registers to reconstruct the chain.
The promoter wanted a system that could answer four questions in seconds. Where did every ingredient in a batch come from? Which finished batches contain a given raw material lot? Where has every batch been dispatched? What is the expiry status of stock across all warehouses today? Paper could not deliver this. Spreadsheets had been tried and abandoned.
Designing for Traceability First, Then Adding the Rest
- Raw material GRN slips were filed by date, not by lot, so finding a specific supplier batch took hours of manual search
- Production batches were recorded in a paper register that never linked back to the raw material lots actually consumed
- Dispatch records lived in a separate ledger, so connecting a customer complaint to a production batch required cross referencing three books
- Expiry tracking was manual, leading to 4 to 6 percent of finished stock expiring in the warehouse before sale every quarter
- FSSAI audits required staff to physically pull files from three different cabinets, which slowed every inspection visit
-
🏭ManufacturingWork orders capture every raw material lot consumed, building a live recipe trail per finished batch
-
📦Inventory with Batch and ExpiryEvery lot tagged with manufacture date, expiry, and FEFO picking enforced at dispatch
-
🛒Purchase ManagementSupplier lot numbers captured at GRN and carried through every downstream transaction
-
💼Sales and DeliveryDispatch notes show which finished batch went to which customer, with full backward traceability
-
🛡Quality InspectionInline checks for raw material, in process, and finished goods, stored against batch for audit access
Live in 14 Weeks Without a Production Shift Stopped.
The food manufacturing calendar runs to retail order schedules with no slack. The rollout was sequenced around the production calendar so the line never paused. Each phase trained staff on their own SKUs and their own batch numbers.
We walked the floor with the production manager, QA head, and stores in charge. We mapped how a single ingredient lot travelled from receipt through cleaning, mixing, packing, and dispatch. Every paper touchpoint was catalogued and rebuilt as a digital workflow.
Item master was set up with batch tracking enabled across all 60 finished SKUs and 140 raw materials. Multi level BOMs were built for each recipe with allowed substitution rules. Reorder levels were set based on actual consumption from the past 12 months of order data.
A pilot SKU group ran in parallel on ERPNext and paper for four weeks. The parallel run caught two edge cases in cleaning station handoff and one issue in returnable container tracking, all resolved before cutover.
ERPNext became the only system of record. Training was role specific for line operators, QA inspectors, stores team, and finance. A 45 day hypercare window covered the first FSSAI audit cycle after go live, which the plant cleared on the first attempt.
Numbers Measured in the First 90 Days After Go Live
The first time we tested a mock recall on the new system, the report was ready in twenty eight minutes. The same exercise on paper had taken us six hours. That single moment justified the entire project for our board.
Your Plant Could Pass Every Audit Like This
We start with a free 30 minute assessment of your current setup. No commitment. No pressure. Just a clear picture of what is possible for your operation.