TraceGains Document Management Automatically Initiates Supplier Corrective Action Requests

Feb. 21, 2013 - PRLog -- Food manufacturers know that there are often no early warnings of impending problems, which means operating reactively instead of proactively.  According to Gary Nowacki, CEO of TraceGains,“When suppliers are out of compliance or nearing a violation, the system automatically initiates supplier corrective action requests (SCARs), sends eNotifications to both internal and supplier personnel, and can automatically place suppliers on probation, suspend them, or reject any of their shipments.”
Automated purchase order acknowledgement solutions further assist in the planning of purchases and inventory. Armed with supplier performance data for risk, compliance, and cost industry sector leaders, such as Chelsea Milling (makers of JIFFY Mix) are able to source the exact ingredients with the exact specifications when needed; this practice optimizes inventory and keeps the lines going.
The Chelsea Milling Company is a 110 year old family-owned business, with a mantra to provide the highest quality affordable product. The company is a complete vertical manufacturer; it stores the majority of the wheat it uses, processes it into flour for production, and manufactures its own packaging. It ships over 150 million pounds of JIFFY.
Mixes per year, and its products are available at over 30,000 retailers and foodservice outlets. Chelsea Milling’s commitment to customers means extra attention to quality. But insuring that all suppliers continuously comply with all quality requirements meant that Chelsea Milling staff members were swamped with manual tasks. The company needed a solution that permitted 24/7 quality control without adding personnel or compromising on quality.  
Chelsea Milling was challenged by too many certificates of analysis (COAs) that needed to be manually checked against the firm’s ingredient specifications. Manual and inefficient processes to retrieve data to support customers’ GFSI audits required additional effort. The inability to predict future performance or to evaluate suppliers on more than price and on-time delivery was troublesome.
The solution also measures the financial impact of non-compliance and monetizes the potential damage done in areas such as manufacturing efficiency, finished goods quality, and product safety. It provides a comprehensive purchase order acknowledgement tracking function, with alerts for supplier late or short shipments that may cause supply chain disruptions.
TraceGains, based in Colorado, creates supplier documents; a management solution which prevents "bad stuff" (out of specification ingredients) from arriving in the first place. Assuring that the correct supplier documents and certifications are on file, (such as allergen statement, kosher, SQF, and BRC) is also important to verify that the finished good food product is compliant with business policies and customer requirements.
TraceGains, Inc. (www.tracegains.com), founded in 1998, is for quality, purchasing, product development, and other departments who are burdened with manually managing suppliers and documents.  TraceGains delivers full service supplier, compliance, and regulatory document management solutions.  Unlike manual, ERP, or traditional document systems, TraceGains extracts data from documents and automatically takes action.
Actionable intelligence is quickly leveraged for supply chain and ingredient optimization. By automatically reducing ingredient variability, finished goods are more easily and cost-effectively produced, while the cost of poor quality is significantly reduced. Charge-backs and stock-outs are kept to a minimum; purchasing and negotiating power with suppliers is increased. Follow TraceGains on Twitter at @tracegains.

TraceGains, Inc.
www.tracegains.com
Marc Simony, Director of Marketing
pr@tracegains.com
720-465-9400