Bad judgment and traceability…they go hand in hand!

Bad judgment and traceability…they go hand in hand!

People are emotional beings that are prone to make rash decisions that can have a potentially devastating impact on; their business, their personal lives and the businesses of others.

The most recent example of this is Stewart Parnell the chief executive at Peanut Corp. of America. Recent media reports link Mr. Parnell and his company to salmonella illnesses. The decision making Mr. Parnell went through is topic for another discussion, what I find interesting is the impact on his life and surrounding business partners.

I saw an interesting article that talks about how Mr. Parnell is isolating himself from family and friends as a way of insolating those around him from this growing media circus. There is no doubt that all the publicity and potential lawsuits will cause tremendous damage to Peanut Corp of America, and may even drive the company out of business. Yet, there are many more articles about his customers (like Kashi) that are now scrambling to recall products that may contain tainted peanuts.

This is a prime example of why companies in regulated environments need to be able to track the “lots” (or serialized items) that went into finished products. Those companies with good processes and automated systems (ERP) can manage and hopefully recover from this shock. Other companies that lack good processes or solid business system to access the lot information open themselves up to tremendous exposure that may drive them out of business. The worst part is these companies may have had no knowledge of the bad lots…but that doesn’t matter when the lawsuits arrive, or the Sherriff padlocks the front door.