Westminster, CO -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/21/2013 -- Automated supplier tracking is vital and the TraceGains (http://www.tracegains.com) platform was selected by Berner Food and Beverage. It consists of full-service supplier document management that helps continuously verify that a supplier, as well as every one of its shipments, is in compliance with all the company’s business rules and ingredient specifications. Recently manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler recently contributed a feature article to Quality Digest titled, “Avoid Supply-Chain Disruptions Before They Occur.”

According to Troy E. Grove, CIO of Berner, the system “automates key SQF 2000 Level 3 elements such as supplier approval procedures, continual assessment, risk assessment, and nonconforming material procedures.” When suppliers are out of compliance or nearing a violation, the system automatically initiates supplier corrective action requests (SCARs). It sends electronic notifications to both internal and supplier personnel and can automatically suspend suppliers and any of their shipments.

The solution also measures the financial impact of non-compliances and monetizes the potential damage done by a supplier in areas such as manufacturing efficiency, finished goods quality, and product safety. Additionally, the system provides a comprehensive purchase-order-acknowledgement tracking function, with alerts for suppliers’ late or short shipments that might cause supply-chain disruptions.

The 24/7 compliance firewall automatically and continuously ensures that supplier shipments meet all of Berner’s specifications and business rules. Noncompliant shipments can be automatically rejected, and the appropriate staff at Berner and the supplier instantly notified. Berner’s suppliers are told to automatically upload or submit any of the documents typically requested—allergen certifications, insurance documentation, and letters of compliance.

About TraceGains
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 is for quality, purchasing, product development, and other departments, that are burdened with manually managing suppliers and documents. TraceGains delivers full-service supplier, compliance, and regulatory document management solutions, including FSMA and GFSI. Unlike manual, ERP, or traditional document systems, TraceGains extracts data from documents and automatically takes action. TraceGains is proven to empower people to quickly solve problems, speed audits, and simplify continuous product improvement.

Supplier documentation storage, whether in file cabinets or in digital formats, may satisfy regulatory retention requirements, but does little to systematically unlock the wealth of business, compliance, and regulatory information they contain and you require on a daily basis to operate successfully.

By automatically analyzing and scorecarding supplier-provided documentation as it is received—such as certificates of analysis, qualification questionnaires, audit documents and their results, certifications (Kosher, Organic, etc.), insurance certificates, allergen questionnaires, and other import requirements (COOL, C-TPAT, FSMA, GFSI), among others—TraceGains helps food and nutraceutical manufacturers and ingredient processors automate document management, meet regulatory and industry compliance requirements, identify best and worst suppliers, source better with less risk, automatically raise product quality, and painlessly perform or participate in audits, all without needing to involve the IT department to help with complex technology.

TraceGains customers experience on average a 56% reduction in out-of-spec lot receipts, and a 20% reduction in attribute variability, resulting in enhanced continuous improvement, better performing ingredient and raw material inventory, improved cash flow, and long-term brand protection. Follow TraceGains on Twitter at @tracegains.

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