Odoo Food Manufacturing Case Study: Trace Every Batch in Minutes

The Challenge

Paper batch records made every audit a scramble

Production wrote batch numbers and ingredient lots on paper sheets that were filed in boxes. If a supplier flagged a bad ingredient, staff dug through folders for days to work out which finished products were affected. Auditors asked for records the team could not pull up quickly.

• Tracing a single ingredient lot to finished goods took days.
• Expiry dates were tracked by hand, so near-date stock slipped through.
• Audit prep pulled staff off the line for a week each time.
• There was no reliable link between a supplier lot and a shipped pallet.

The Solution

Lot and expiry tracking built into production

We set up Odoo Manufacturing with lot and serial tracking on raw materials and finished goods, so every batch carries its full history from supplier to shipment.

• Each finished batch links back to the exact ingredient lots used.
• Expiry dates drive first-expiry-first-out picking automatically.
• Quality checks are recorded at set points in the production run.
• A full upstream and downstream trace runs in a few clicks.

How We Delivered

Set up for the audit standard from day one

We built the lot structure around the firm's food safety standard, so the records the system keeps are the records auditors ask for. Line staff scan lots as they go, which keeps the data accurate without slowing the run.

Go-live took eleven weeks, including a practice recall trace to prove the system end to end.

The Outcome

Recalls in minutes and calmer audits

A trace that used to take days now runs in minutes. Near-date stock gets used first instead of being written off. The last audit closed with no findings on traceability, and the team prepped for it without leaving the line.