The question that tests it
Ask a supplier: six months from now, can you tell me which lot shipped on this order.
A supplier who can answer has real inventory discipline. A supplier who cannot has certificates that no customer can ever connect to a physical vial, which means the testing programme, however genuine, cannot be verified by anyone downstream.
What a traceable operation records
- Lot identity assigned at production and carried on every record afterwards
- Receipt date and condition on arrival into the warehouse
- Storage location and conditions while held
- The tie between an outbound order and the lot that filled it
The last one is the one that gets skipped, because it costs nothing to set up at the start and is impossible to reconstruct afterwards.
Why it matters to your customers, not just to you
When a buyer asks which lot they received — and eventually one will, usually at the worst moment — the answer decides whether you look like an operator or a reseller. If you cannot answer because your supplier cannot, that is your problem in your customer’s eyes.
Set it up at the start
Lot-to-order mapping is a field in a spreadsheet on day one and an archaeology project on day two
hundred. Ask your fulfillment partner about it during setup, not during an incident.