Material Traceability vs. Equipment-Based Tracking: Why Modern Manufacturing Needs Both
Monitoring shipment progress in real-time has become commonplace, whether it be for food orders or packages. Customers expect precise information regarding the status and estimated time of arrival for their orders. Pizza Tracker by Domino’s was a pioneer in the field. DoorDash enhanced it with real time GPS updates. These days, consumers expect full tracking transparency from clicks to delivery.
Many manufacturing plants, on the other hand, are still operating as if they are in the dark ages.
Considering millions of dollars in investment, product safety, and supply chain stability, having visibility is critical. Moreover, while the traditional focus in smart manufacturing solutions has been on tracking equipment, material traceability is becoming just as vital—if not more. Because knowing machines are operational is no longer sufficient; it’s essential to understand the materials being processed through them.
Why Sole Dependency on Equipment-Based Tracking Is Ineffective
For many years now, plant managers have concentrated on efficiency concerning equipment. Metrics like uptime, performance, and availability have driven maintenance and productivity strategies. While relevant, it only paints part of the picture.
Consider a simple example: you own a pizza store. Your oven is hot. Your slicer is sharp. Your team is set. But you run out of mushrooms and bell peppers. While the equipment is in great shape, the order cannot be serviced. That scenario is not equipment failure. It’s a materials issue.
Manufacturers encounter the same challenges at scale. A production line may be functioning without issue, but proper materials must be available at a specific time and be of adequate quality; if not, the entire operation may face danger. This is where material traceability becomes essential.
What Is Material Traceability?
Material traceability refers to tracking the flow of raw materials and monitoring their transformation from the raw state to the processed state. This gives manufacturers insights into the source of the materials, their transportation, and even the machinery they passed through during processing, as well as their impact on the resultant product.
As opposed to equipment tracking which centres on machines, material traceability attempts to understand the creation process as well as the product.
Thanks to modern industrial Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and smart manufacturing systems, it is now feasible to construct a digital thread that follows every element of a product throughout its entire lifecycle. This enhances the scope for a comprehensive, data-driven perspective about production.
Why Effective Material Flow Visibility Is Important
In today’s businesses, material traceability is no longer limited to the plant’s inventory; it is more about how that information can be operationalized. Here is how effective material flow visibility enhances outcomes:
- Improved Quality and Yield
When you can trace materials through each stage of production, you can identify which inputs lead to better outputs. You can correlate material properties with yield and quality and make data-backed decisions that reduce defects and improve consistency.
- Faster Response to Issues
A contamination issue or product defect used to trigger broad recalls. But with detailed traceability, you can isolate the exact batch affected minimizing risk, cost, and damage to your brand.
- Ethical and Regulatory Compliance
Traceability also supports sourcing transparency. In industries like food, pharma, and electronics, being able to prove where your materials came from and under what conditions is now a regulatory and ethical requirement.
- Reduced Waste and Downtime
When materials are tracked as closely as equipment, inefficiencies become easier to spot. Maybe a specific supplier’s materials are causing jams or downtime. Maybe temperature fluctuations during storage are affecting quality. With material-level data, you can act faster and waste less.
COVID-19 and the Wake-Up Call for Supply Chains
Global supply chains are complex systems that can be easily disrupted, as we witnessed during the pandemic’s peak. Manufacturers struggled to adapt as everything came to a standstill and operations accelerated into chaos. Beyond just lean operations, increased agility became a necessity.
Companies transitioning from basic disaster recovery mechanisms into full-blown resilience strategies is something that Forrester predicted. Having visibility into the machines, materials, suppliers, and logistics is a requirement for building agility and resilience.
Smart digital supply chain technology and other sophisticated tools, such as trust networks and logistics control towers, which enhance supplier relations, are now being adopted. However, efficiency and optimal decision-making in those systems cannot be achieved without proper material-level data.
From Equipment Metrics to Holistic Insight
This is not concerning any type of equipment monitoring replacement. It is rather concerning broadening your perspective. Imagine a scenario where a machine is operating optimally but suddenly the yield drops. With solely equipment data, you have no choice but to make educated guesses. However, if you can link that drop to a certain batch of raw materials, you can eliminate the issue at the source.
Material traceability connects the cause and the effect in production, linking the quality problems with particular material lots. It captures the correlation of waste with specific time, temperature, or input from the supplier. It transforms routine data into invaluable information.
The Role of Material Flow Analytics in Smart Manufacturing
Smart manufacturing is all about using data to make better decisions in real time. Material flow analytics is a core part of that. It helps manufacturers:
- Track material movement across locations, shifts, and machines
- Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies
- Monitor inventory levels and usage patterns
- Detect quality or compliance risks earlier
For example, in the food industry, material traceability can help prove product provenance, which is essential during recalls or regulatory checks. In automotive or electronics, it helps confirm that every component meets sourcing and compliance standards.
The Domino’s Effect: From “Trust Us” to Total Transparency
Recollect the trust-based strategy of 30-minute delivery by Domino’s? Well, such transparency has reshaped modern expectations across industries. Customers don’t just hope the product will arrive they track every step of the process.
Now, even manufacturers are not exempt from this shift. Customers, partners, and regulators demand stringent proof detailing the processes of vague explanations as to what went wrong or where something came from.
New advancements in technology have made it easier to deliver it.
Final Thoughts: It’s Time to Widen the Lens
Concentrating solely on equipment-based tracking is akin to watching a suspenseful sporting event from a single camera angle. You glean some information but not nearly enough.
Savvy manufacturers are expanding the scope of their operations. They are integrating equipment tracking with material traceability to achieve an uninterrupted flow of complete and current operational insights. This is how manufacturers are improving yields, minimizing risks, enhancing compliance, and fortifying resilience.
In the current tumultuous environment, that level of visibility is not just advantageous it’s essential.
Want to See It in Action?
ThinkIQ’s platform helps manufacturers move from siloed equipment metrics to a full understanding of material flows across their entire operation. If you’re ready to upgrade from isolated insights to true manufacturing intelligence, we’re here to help.
Contact us today to explore how material traceability can strengthen your supply chain and improve every stage of production.
