MANUFACTURING GLOSSARY / Traceability
Traceability: Manufacturing traceability
Traceability is the ability to follow the identity, history, use, location, or relationship of a material, part, batch, serial, process, record, or decision.
What it means in manufacturing
The required direction and depth differ by product, customer, contract, regulation, and risk. Traceability may connect receipts, lots, revisions, jobs, operators, equipment, inspections, dispositions, and shipments.
A question to use in evaluation
Starting from a shipment or affected lot, can the team retrieve the exact source material, work, requirement, and release evidence it needs?
Keep the label and the evidence separate
Category terms describe a type of work; they do not establish what a specific software release, configuration, integration, or customer process can do. Test the proposed boundary with representative records, responsible owners, failure cases, and written acceptance criteria.
Your next step
Test the definition against your operation.
Use a real workflow to determine where the record lives, who decides, and what evidence the proposed scope must retain.