Glossary
What a batch is
Not a quantity or a date: a set of things sharing one history. And that decides how far a problem reaches.
It is one of the most used and least defined words. It shows up on a label, on a delivery note and in an alert, and it is nearly always understood as «what was made that day» — which sometimes matches and sometimes does not.
Batch
A set of units sharing the same conditions: same origin, same process and same period. It is given a code so it can be referred to later.
What it is actually for
| Situation | What the batch makes possible |
|---|---|
| A client reports a problem | Knowing what else went out under the same conditions |
| A supplier flags an incident | Knowing whether it affected you and by how much |
| Product has to be withdrawn | Withdrawing only what is needed, not the whole month |
| Someone asks about an old shipment | Going back to the conditions of that moment |
Important
From which comes the only rule that matters when defining one: **you decide the batch, and the bigger it is, the more gets withdrawn when something fails**. Group a whole month's production under one code and a problem in one unit affects the whole month — and you will not be able to show otherwise, because nothing distinguishes one unit from another. A small batch costs a little more recording and saves enormous withdrawals.
What breaks a batch unnoticed
Watch out
A frequent confusion worth undoing: **your supplier's batch and yours are not the same, and both are needed**. Theirs identifies what they delivered; yours, what left your hands. Keep only one and you can look one way but not the other — and half the time the question arrives from precisely the missing side.
How to choose a code
- 1
Unique, and not repeated next year
Codes that reset annually are a guaranteed problem.
- 2
Readable on the label and typeable without hesitation
Someone will read it out over the phone one day.
- 3
And no decoding needed to know what it belongs to
A code only its designer understands is useless in an emergency.
Worth knowing
In some sectors how a batch is defined and identified is regulated. **What yours requires is for your adviser or quality manager to confirm**; here we explain what it is for, which is what should shape the definition.
›Are batch and consignment the same?
In practice they are used almost alike; what matters is that they are identified.
›Can I change how I define batches?
Yes, marking from when: earlier ones are still read under the old rule.
›What if a product has no batch?
Then what can be traced is the shipment: less precise, better than nothing.
A real case
The situation
A company groups a whole month's output under one code and a problem appears in one unit.
What you do
- Defines batches per run and records the code at the start, not the end
What you get
The next incident is contained to a few hours of production instead of a whole month.
The situation
The batch code is recorded at the end rather than the start.
What you do
- Records the batch at the moment of production
What you get
The data is exact rather than reconstructed.
The situation
A batch groups things that do not share a history.
What you do
- Defines the batch by what they genuinely share
What you get
Containing a problem stops dragging in what is unaffected.
The situation
Nobody knows what went into a specific batch.
What you do
- Ties raw materials to the output batch
What you get
Tracing runs backwards, not only forwards.
The situation
The batch does not travel through to the customer's delivery note.
What you do
- Carries the code through to the outgoing document
What you get
You can tell which customer received which batch.
The situation
The batch is defined with production in mind rather than an incident.
What you do
- Chooses the width by how much would have to be recalled
What you get
The decision is taken with the scenario that matters in view.
This article answers
- what is a production batch
- difference between batch and consignment
- what the batch number is for
- how a batch is defined