Westminster, CO -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/27/2012 -- Manufacturing journalist, Thomas R. Cutler recently contributed a feature article titled, “Supplier Document Management at the Heart of Automation,” published in the current issue of AutomationMedia.com.

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.

According to Cutler, “Automation must include the ability to identify riskiest suppliers via a supplier scorecard. Using technologies to determine risk trends for key problems as well as comparing risks across alternate suppliers allows for lean best-practices among all manufacturing operations, especially food and beverage. The risks are many and the ability to quickly discern trouble spots can be accomplished by automatically illuminating suppliers with non-current documentation, highlighting potential supply chain disruptions from missing P.O.s, as well as pinpointing the suppliers and ingredients that are costing money.”

TraceGains, Inc. (http://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.

TraceGains is proven to empower people to quickly solve problems, speed audits, and simplify continuous product improvement. From C-level executives to quality and strategic sourcing departments this supplier document management solution simultaneously reduces costs while improving quality – automatically. Food & beverage makers, restaurant chains, nutraceutical manufacturers, and any company challenged with raw material or ingredient variability can benefit from TraceGains’ supplier compliance and supplier impact solutions.

Companies quickly identify how individual suppliers and raw materials affect product outcomes such as customer satisfaction, profitability, yield, and quality. Suppliers are continuously evaluated and rank-ordered on new business-critical KPIs which go way beyond the traditional measures of cost and on-time delivery.

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