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Supply chain visibility (SCV) is the ability of parts, components or products in transit to be tracked from the manufacturer to their final destination. According to TechTarget, the primary objective of SCV is to improve the availability of data to stakeholders and customers alike, ultimately strengthening and improving the supply chain.

While the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) rules have all been finalized for quite a few months now, there are still significant amounts of confusion and questions regarding implementation and what companies actually need to do from a food safety standpoint.

With the finalization of all rules that make up the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and compliance dates already in effect for the Preventive Controls rules for large companies, one common denominator stands out amongst them all: the increased need for supply chain transparency.

With the evolution and increase in global supply chains, the risks associated with these global suppliers are greater than ever before, as one's network overall becomes inherently more vulnerable when scaled to a global size. And with the upcoming finalizations to the Foreign Supplier Verification Program from FSMA, supply chain risk management will now become not only best practices, but a regulatory obligation. U.S. manufacturers will need to analyze hazards and corresponding risks to incoming ingredients, and implement supplier controls as part of the HARPC. Now, organizations must work to proactively identify and mitigate their supply chain risk. But where do you start when it comes to building a risk management program?

For food manufacturers, the safety of finished goods is not only dependent on the ingredients themselves, but also largely dependent on the suppliers used throughout the food supply chain. Having a properly managed supplier program can help to ensure quality is met, and also helps to create great working relationships between manufacturers and suppliers.

Mistakes or oversights in supply chains can cost companies major bucks, but oversights are just that--something that's difficult to notice before a major issue occurs. Here are 4 common oversights companies make when it comes to their supply chains, and a few tips on how to avoid them.

Most food and beverage companies know they need to evaluate their suppliers on a wide range of supplier behaviors, but for a lot companies, this effort has been historically very labor-intensive. Because it has taken so long to compile performance data across the entire supplier base, most companies are lucky if they manually generate a supplier scorecard more than once or twice a year. Usually this process involves using an Excel spreadsheet and can be quite error-prone as data are transcribed from one system to the Excel spreadsheet. Additionally, even though the company wants to include a broad range of behaviors, they often limit the evaluation to only a few supplier performance attributes. Worst-case scenario, they only use price and on-time deliveries for supplier ranking.

With the ever-changing landscape of the food supply chain, the documentation required to stay in compliance, be prepared for a variety of food safety audits, and efficiently manage hundreds of suppliers can be overwhelming, leaving you no time to do the job you were hired to do. Instead, you drown in documents and feel locked in the cells of spreadsheets. 

When it comes to managing a global supply chain, things can get pretty complicated pretty quickly. There are often day-to-day changes, with a “here today, gone tomorrow” mentality when it comes to suppliers in certain programs. And the task of managing all supplier information, which is often times inconsistent or non-existent, can be cumbersome and challenging. So how do you go about making sure these global suppliers are complaint with your company’s food safety and quality standards? It can be somewhat tricky...

With the final rules for FSMA quickly approaching, it's important to start prepping your organization now rather than later. And while the prep work involved in becoming fully compliant with FSMA can seem like a mountain to climb, one way to ensure you're at least on your way to being better prepared is to scorecard your current suppliers. What is supplier scorecarding and why does it matter for FSMA?