Lot Control and Traceability

A reel of 5000 and a strip of cut tape are not the same stock, even when they are the same part. Without lot control, PartsBox can only tell you the total. With it, each batch is a distinct lot, with its own quantity, storage location, purchase price, and source. You see how much is left on the reel versus the strip, and you choose which lot a build consumes.

The value is everyday accuracy, not only audit. Lot control gives you:

• Real per-lot cost. Each lot keeps the price you paid. Build cost and inventory value come from the lots actually consumed, not from a blended average.
• What is usable. Set a lot aside — quarantined, expired, or sent to a contract manufacturer — and PartsBox leaves it out when it picks stock to build. On-hand stock and stock usable for production stay separate numbers.
• Expiration. Record a use-by date, and PartsBox can refuse to build from an expired lot.
• Tags. Tag a lot by customer or as house stock, then build only from the lots a job allows.

Lots also measure. A lot can start as a spool of a hundred meters, and PartsBox tracks the remaining length as you use it, in the part's own unit.

Traceability follows for free. Every build records the exact lots it consumed, so you trace forward from a supplier lot to the devices that used it, and backward from a device to its sources. Splitting a lot keeps the link to its origin, so the chain holds however stock moves. Enable serial numbers, and every unit built is its own lot, with a unique code that carries its test and service records.

Lot control and serial numbers are on the Control plan. The immutable audit trail, which records every change for US FDA 21 CFR Part 11, is on Compliance.