How a BI-wise Responsible Integrated Management System May Support Food Traceability

What is it about?

Food manufacturers are required to meet certain traceability specifications. This research aims at underscoring the relevant needs and expectations of various stakeholders across the entire food supply chain. In this context, firms’ decisions on resource allocation and risk mitigation overlap several domains, such as quality, safety, environment, social responsibility and information. Business Intelligence (BI) platforms are specifically conceived to support analytical decision making by providing a centralised view on multiple distributed data sources. However, BI solutions are usually deployed within a single organization, whilst traceability involves multiple actors with potentially divergent interests and diverse levels of willingness to participate. Along this line of thought, integration of management systems within a company and throughout the overall supply chain is suggested to meet the emerging managerial challenges. After a detailed survey of integrated management systems (IMSs) in food traceability contexts, this research proposes a BI-wise solution using the IMS overarching approach and investigates its success conditions.

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Why is it important?

Traceability requirements remain either ambiguous or narrow in scope. It is up to the organization to decide on the resources and capabilities of its traceability system depending on factors, such as the resources involved and the estimated level of the related risks. The information, when centrally gathered and coded in a single system connected to unique entities, can be extracted and used to meet both operational and analytical business requirements, supporting short- and long-term decision.

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