GlossaryKind of term: Manufacturing termTraceability
What is traceability?
Traceability is the ability to find, for a delivered part, which material, order, operations and inspection it came from.
In general terms it covers the history, application or location of a part, found through recorded identification. In machining it is a chain: the part or lot carries a lot or serial number, and that number leads to the order, the heat number with its material certificate, the machine and program, the inspection report and the finisher's certificates. The identification goes on the part, for example by laser marking or stamping, or on a label with the packaging.
What does traceability depend on?
How far the chain has to reach is set by the customer in the order, the drawing or the purchasing terms: per lot or per part, material only or also machine, program and measurement results, and how long the records are kept. A quality system to ISO 9001 requires traceability where it is a requirement. Break one link and, when a complaint comes in, you can no longer tell which other parts carry the same risk.
How does traceability work in practice?
Traceability changes how you work. Material without a certificate cannot be used for such an order, lots with different heat numbers are kept apart where the customer requires it, and offcuts go back on the rack with their heat number. Marking is an operation with its own time. Every order brings paperwork: linking certificates, recording numbers, keeping the file. So read the requirement at the request stage, because a chain can rarely be rebuilt afterwards.
What is traceability often confused with?
Traceability is not a material certificate: the certificate is one link, the chain runs all the way to the delivery. Nor is it metrological traceability, which concerns the calibration chain linking a measurement result to the SI units. And the provenance of a value in your estimate is about where a number in the price came from, not about the delivered part.
Frequently asked questions
When does a part need to be traceable?
When the customer requires it in the order, on the drawing or in their purchasing terms. In aerospace, medical technology and energy it is usual; in general machine building it varies by customer and by part.
What does traceability cost in an estimate?
Certified material, separated lots, marking as an operation and paperwork per order. Those items fall mostly per order or per lot, not per part, so per part they weigh most on small batches.