Completing a Recall

A product recall is the process of retrieving defective goods from consumers and in most cases providing those consumers with compensation. Recalls often occur as a result of safety concerns over a manufacturing defect in a product that may harm its user. Recalls can be costly. Costs include having to handle the recalled product, replacing it, and possibly being held financially responsible for the consequences of the recalled product. Most countries have consumer protection laws detailing specific requirements in regard to product recalls.

Recalls almost always involve a public announcement stating the safety concerns as well as information regarding how the product should be returned or discarded. DEACOM provides various reports to use to track down affected Lots and contact the necessary people.

Configuration

Companies that may need to complete a recall, will likely track vendor lots from receipt, through production, as well as manufactured lots to end customers. Utilizing lot control in DEACOM enables companies to quickly track down suspect materials and notify customers of the recall. For information on Lot Control in deacom, see the Utilizing Lot Control page. Companies may wish to maintain a valid customer email address in the "Email" field on the General tab of the Ship-to Company record. (In web versions of DEACOM, The "Send Email" button on lot tracking reports uses the address from this field as the default when the system generates the send email template.)

Process

The "Lot Tracking Implosion" and "Lot Tracking Explosion" reports contain the information necessary to assist in product/lot recall situations and, of course, mock recalls. Before generating these reports, it is important to understand how much material needs to be collected and from where (e.g. was it sold to a customer? Was it consumed on a Job? Is it still on hand?)

What is the order of operations in DEACOM when performing a recall?

  1. Determine the quantity ordered and received from Vendors and what is currently on hand. If all that was received is not still on hand (e.g. some was used in Jobs, sold, or adjusted out), continue with #2.
  2. Determine the quantity consumed by Jobs (all Job levels - initial use, subassemblies, blends, Finished Goods, etc.) and what output from those Jobs is currently on hand. If all that was produced is not still on hand (e.g. some was used in a subsequent Job, sold, or adjusted out), continue with #3.
  3. Determine the quantity sold to customers and what is remaining on hand. If not everything was sold (e.g. some was adjusted out), continue with #4.
  4. Determine the quantity that was adjusted out of inventory. This includes manual inventory adjustments and material that was relieved without a finish, which is calculated by a Production "Expensed Material" report filtered by Job Number.

Once the above quantities have been determined, the aforementioned reports can be used to determine exactly where material is located and who to contact to alert of the recall.

What does a "Lot Tracking Implosion" report contain and how is it generated?

The Inventory Reporting "Lot Tracking Implosion" report is a tracking report that takes the Lot selected on the pre-filter and answers the question "Where was this Lot used?”. This report will display the following data, including details of any reworked materials.

  1. All Purchase Orders and inventory moves from QC where the Lot was created.
  2. All inventory moves.
  3. All inventory adjustments.
  4. All Jobs the Lot was issued to.
  5. All products made on that Job.
  6. All customers to whom the products were shipped.
  7. All current on hand inventory that contains that Lot.

The data is shown in the order of (1) Sources, (2) Usage, then (3) Remaining On Hand. A particularly useful variable available to this report is the Source Quantity (sourceqty) variable. If it is added, the system will explode the Job finish lines and sum the quantity of the source Lot used during production. This variable calculates the quantity of all of the Raw Materials that went into the Part that is listed, including Lots that were produced via the Inventory > Produce Assemblies transaction.

To generate this report, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Inventory Reporting.
  2. In the "Report Type" field, select "Lot Tracking Implosion".
  3. Ensure that "All" is selected in the "View", "Transaction Offset", and "QC Status" fields on the pre-filter.
  4. Ensure that "Show" is selected in the "Zero Items" field.
  5. Enter the Lot number of the recalled material in the "User Lot" field. A User Lot must be specified when using this report.
  6. Click the "View" button to generate the report, which will display the history and disposition of the Lot in detail.
  7. At this point, companies may take the appropriate action to perform the recall, including sending emails to those customers to whom the select Lot was shipped. To send an email to recipients of the recalled material, use the "Send Email" button (available in web versions only). This will prompt the system to open an email window with the "To" field populated with the sh_email (email address from the Ship-to Company) and the "Subject" field populated with the User Lot of the selected record.

What does a "Lot Tracking Explosion" report contain and how is it generated?

The Inventory "Lot Tracking Explosion" report is a tracking report that "opens up" the Lot selected on the pre-filter and answers the question "What is in this Lot and where did it come from?". This report will display the following data:

  • All Jobs the Lot was created on.
  • All materials created on the Job.
  • All Lots and materials issued to the Job.
  • All Purchase Orders and inventory adjustments where the materials used on the Jobs came from.

A couple items of note when using this report:

  • When a "View" of "Finish" is selected on the pre-filter, the report will trickle down and show all the Lots for all the finishes.
  • When looking for Parts for this report, and a kitted part is on the order, the system will add the kitted part's BOM requirements to the Part list returned on the report.
  • Alternatively, a "Lot Tracking Explosion - Summarized" report may be used, which is similar to the "Lot Tracking Explosion" report, except the lines are grouped by User Lot to more easily view Catch Weight and/or Serialized items, which can blow up the report to many lines.

To generate this report, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Inventory > Inventory Reporting.
  2. In the "Report Type" field, select "Lot Tracking Explosion".
  3. Select an appropriate value in the "View" field.
  4. Ensure that "Show" is selected in the "Zero Items" field.
  5. Enter the Lot number of the recalled material in the "User Lot" field. A User Lot must be specified when using this report.
  6. Click the "View" button to generate the report.
  7. At this point, companies may use this information to further investigate and carry out the recall.

Additional Information

The "QC Result History" and "QC Result History By Test" reports (via Inventory > Inventory Reporting) can be used to audit QC results and QC result passes for specific lots.