What is identification and traceability?

What it is

Clause 8.5.2 asks two related things.

Identification: you use suitable means to identify outputs when it is necessary to ensure conformity, and you identify the status of outputs with respect to monitoring and measurement requirements throughout production. In plain terms, anyone walking the floor should be able to tell what a part is and whether it has passed inspection yet.

Traceability: where traceability is a requirement, you control the unique identification of outputs and retain the documented information necessary to enable it. Note the condition. Traceability is required when your customer, a regulation, or your own process says it is. Aerospace, defense, medical, and pressure-containing work usually say it is.

The two get confused because they use the same tags. Identification answers what and what state. Traceability answers where it came from and where it went.

When you will hear it

At a customer audit, as a challenge: pick a finished unit, show me the material certificate for the plate in it. That exercise tests both clauses at once and takes about ten minutes to fail.

In a recall or containment event, where the width of the problem is set entirely by how good your traceability is. Poor traceability turns a one-lot problem into a six-month problem.

In flowdown language from primes, where lot traceability and material certification requirements are usually explicit.

What the auditor expects to see

Material that is identified at every stage, including work in process. A bin of machined parts with no tag between operations is the usual finding.

Inspection status visible and unambiguous. Tags, locations, system status, or all three. Whatever your system, someone new has to be able to read it.

If traceability is required: the full chain, retrievable in reasonable time. Heat or lot number on the certificate, tied to the receiving record, tied to the work order, tied to the shipper. Auditors test it by picking one end and asking for the other.

Records that match reality. This is where inventory accuracy stops being a finance problem and becomes an audit problem: if the system says a lot is on the shelf and it is not, neither the identification nor the traceability record is trustworthy.

Common mistakes

Traceability that breaks at one operation. Usually the one where parts are moved in bulk between machines and tags stay on the empty container.

Relying on one person's memory. Every plant has someone who knows which rack is which. That is not identification, and it leaves with them.

Tagging only at receiving and at shipping. The middle is where the chain snaps.

Unmarked rework. Material that left the process and came back without its identification is a common route to mixed lots.

FAQ

Is traceability always required?

No. Clause 8.5.2 requires it where it is a requirement, which means where a customer, a regulation, or your own risk assessment calls for it. Identification of status is required in all cases.

How far does traceability have to go?

As far as the requirement says. Often that is raw material heat or lot number through to the shipped serial number. Read the customer's specification rather than guessing.

Does our ERP system satisfy this?

It can carry the records. It does not put tags on parts or make the floor use them, and auditors test the floor.

What counts as unique identification?

Serial numbers, lot numbers, job numbers, or any scheme that distinguishes one unit or batch from another and is controlled so it is not reused ambiguously.