Batch record

A batch record is what a finished batch leaves behind: the recipe it followed, the quantities actually weighed, the lots drawn, the checks signed off, who ran it, when, and what came out. It is the document you reach for when a customer complains, an auditor visits, or you want to know why last month’s batch was better than this one’s.

Why it has to be sealed

A record that can change is not a record. If someone edits the formula in March, a batch made in January must still show the January recipe, because that is what was in the pot.

BatchDash does this by freezing the formula version onto the run when it is planned. A later edit creates a new version and leaves every finished record alone. Completing a run seals it: the quantities, the lots and the checks stop being editable, and the cost computed at completion stays at completion.

Trials are the deliberate exception. A test run can be reverted, which returns its stock and removes its output, because a bench trial that went wrong should not leave a permanent hole in your inventory. A production run cannot.

What a good record holds

• The recipe as executed, at the version and batch size used.
• The quantities weighed, which are never exactly the plan.
• The lots drawn, for one-up, one-back tracing.
• The checkpoints, with the values recorded and who recorded them.
• The output, its quantity, its lot code and its yield.
• The cost, computed from the ingredient costs on the day.

What it is used for afterwards

A complaint about one jar becomes a question about one batch, and the record answers it in a minute. An audit asks to see three batches and you print three records. A yield that drifts over six months shows up as a trend rather than a feeling, because every batch wrote its number down.

For cosmetics in the EU the same records are the manufacturing half of a product information file. For food they are what a recall is built on.

See completing a run for the mechanics, and the batch records page for the pitch.