Pork Recall, Part Two...

StevenSimske — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:40:00 GMT

I chatted with my friend and fellow HP colleague, Mick Keyes, a business/technology strategist in Dublin and an expert on Track and Trace, about the Irish pork recall. Mick provided me with some of the personal aspects of the recall.

According to Mick, This a bad one ok. The effects are becoming obvious. Over 1000+ workers laid off in past few hrs as processing plants grind to a halt. 12 EU sites have banned all Pork from Ireland (this is a 400 Million euro export business that is affected). You can see how the whole banking/Credit crunch is intersecting with this in real time. Plants can't get credit to pay workers or suppliers so its immediate "close down" and layoff workers. Industry now reckons this is going to cost $1 billion over all..and they want a Govt. bail out. Retailers want compensation. Consumers want compensation. It is a mess. Very sad listening to small family owned business crying on radio shows in abject desperation. The size of recall (i.e. ALL pork products/Whole industry ) is raising question about how effective Traceability systems are in protecting those that haven't done "anything wrong".

Terrible to think about all these affected people, with little recourse. And, they have to pull all products when 10% (of the farms) of the 10% (dating from the correct period) of the products on the shelf are affected. Not a sustainable method forward. As times get tougher and wallets thinner, we're simply going to have to have a better way to manage how we separate the good from the bad. And, with higher confidence so consumers do not turn away from the industry en masse. Tomatoes, milk, pork--that just about covers my Uncle's entire diet. If Guinness is recalled, he's going hungry for the Holidays. I'll bet he's noticing. Food may be the tipping point that many thought pharmaceutics would be.

The point on the availability of credit cannot be overstated. Without access to easy credit--a reversal of the past 15+ years--there is no margin for error. When profits can't be made, there's nothing in reserve. The just-in-time supply chain can quickly become the just-no-time response. If there's no slack in the system, then contingencies must be incorporated in the design. In future blogs, I will describe how come of these concerns are being addressed.

-Steve

ePedigree Delay a Sign of An Eventual Supply Chain U.N.?

StevenSimske — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:49:00 GMT

I have been remiss in discussing the delay in the California ePedigree until 2015. This has been interpreted as a long-term delay for track and trace and overall product safety. For a nice overview and analysis of the problem, see http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=17793.

However, ePedigree initiatives are underway by the WHO, FDA, EU, AQSIQ (China), GS1 and other standards/regulatory organizations. A full serialization+pedigree requirement may be delayed until 2015, but it is unlikely that ePedigree will not already be in place before then. Recent passing of PRO-IP and Country-of-origin labeling (COOL) legislation in the US indicates that the US,too, will continue with initiatives before 2015.

The delay of California ePedigree legislation, moreover, may be indicative of another passing of the torch. Much as the recent Presidential (and Congressional) election results likely signal a more collaborative, less "independent" US foreign policy, the delay in ePedigree may signal a more collaborative, less independent nation-to-nation legislation in the future.

Will the big players--WHO, FDA, EU, AQSIQ, GS1, ISO, and others--work together to create a reasonable roadmap for product track and trace, pedigree and provenance? In effect, create a "United Nations" for track and trace? I, for one, hope so. With the increasingly convoluted supply chains for virtually all products resulting in chaos during recall, fraud and even normal node-node shipping situations (how many retailers can confidently tell you everywhere a product has been on its way to their shelves?), how long can it be before the legitimate market says, "enough is enough"? Plus, a universal process will reduce confusion, lower cost, and improve response time around the planet.

Is the current combination of counterfeiting, diversion, factory overrun, smuggling, return fraud and other supply chain crime the commerce equivalent of the two World Wars? A series of events so drastic that the set of collective players decides to band together into a United Nations to try to prevent such a meltdown in the future? (I realize the United Nations is by no means perfect--but we have been without nuclear combat for 63 years...). Maybe so. And maybe the delay in the California ePedigree shows that the US, rather than defining the path forward, is willing to work with the rest of the Supply Chain United Nations in formulating the optimum set of requirements moving forward.

-Steve

Security Printing and Imaging : Recall, Traceability

Pork Recall, Part Two...

ePedigree Delay a Sign of An Eventual Supply Chain U.N.?