Lot and batch number

A lot number identifies a quantity of something made or received under conditions you can describe: one delivery from one vendor on one day, or one batch you made from one formula. It is the handle you hold a quantity by when a question arrives about it later.

Two codes travel with the same jar, and confusing them is the usual mistake.

The vendor’s lot code is stamped on what arrives. It identifies their production, not yours. Two vendors can and do stamp the same string, so a code on its own is not an identity.

Your lot code is minted when a batch of yours completes. It identifies your production and is what goes on the label.

What a lot has to answer

A lot earns its keep by answering three questions without a search through paper:

• What went into it. The specific vendor lots drawn, at the quantities drawn.
• Where it went. The sales orders and shipments that drew on it.
• What was true when it was made. The formula version, the checks, the operator, the date.

If a lot can answer those, a recall is an afternoon. If it cannot, it is a week and a guess.

How BatchDash handles them

A delivery is a record, not a string. Receiving 20 kg of habaneros on the 4th under the vendor’s code HB-2411 creates a named lot; the same code from a different vendor is a different record, and the trace keeps them apart.

Completing a run books its output under a lot code of your own, following the reference pattern your organization set. Drawing stock for that run records which vendor lots were taken, at what quantity, so the link is written as the work happens.

Both halves are needed for the walk in either direction. See tracing a lot for doing it, and one-up, one-back for why regulators ask.

The pitch version is on the traceability page.