Beef Traceability Modeling Tool

Summary

Background
Supply chain traceability includes a variety of technologies and standards, which allow information flows both within processing plants and between supply chain partners.
This summary covers the development of standards, projects related to the overall supply chain management program (2008-2010) as well as associated traceability strategies.
Research
GS1/EAN.UCC/portmark supply chain standards
In project P.PSH.0397, Teys Bros participated in an 2008 Industry Capability Review to determine companies' GS1 status and worked closely with one of their customers to develop a detailed case study on what opportunities there are to optimise the current method for product identification. A key component of the case study was to identify the current use of port marks (if any) by commercial parties in the supply chain and to determine if this can be replaced by reliance on the GS1 barcoding system. At the same time other opportunities to exploit the benefits of the GS1 system were explored.  No detailed report is available.
The GS1 integration project P.PIP.0103 at Nolan Meats project comprised several well defined stages of implementation, with the overall goal of the project to become a fully compliant GS1 e-business facility.  
Project P.PIP.0079 covered an analysis of information flows and implementation of an GS1 e-business solution for Killarney Abattoir.
Project A.SCT.0033 showed how the GS1 systems (GS1 numbering, bar coding and electronic messaging) incorporating existing regulatory systems (NLIS and NVDs) could be applied along the whole of the beef supply chain from breeding through to retail to improve efficiently and traceability.  
The purpose of project A.SCC.0034 was to provide information to the Port Mark Elimination committee to assist them in investigating the possibility of establishing a process that would deliver more consistent product identification, control and inventory management and may eliminate the need for port marking for beef and sheep meat. The Port Mark Elimination committee was formed by AMIC and AQIS under the auspices of Export Meat Industry Advisory Committee (EMIAC).  
Projects A.SCC.0031, A.SCC.0043 was to provide technical advice for the Supply Chain Management program in the area of information and systems, including the GS1 system, previous MLA traceability and ebusiness projects, codification, RFID, information flow and systems.
A.SCC.0029 provided an electronic summary of project work completed in the GS1/ebusiness area.
A.SCC.0017 funded the development of a single location reference point to provide information regarding the adoption of  standards along the supply chain including tools and support services.
In 2015, project P.PIP.0439 was conducted to provide an alternative method to resolve illegible or missing shipping marks in loads of meat received in the US. This alternative method uses GS1 barcoding and eMessage to provide the required level of confidence for illegible or missing shipping marks to be replaced under FSIS supervision at the iHouse.
 
Electronic Meat Transfer Certificate (eMTC)
A Meat Transfer Certificate (MTC) is an AQIS paper form that is required to be completed when export product is moved from one export listed establishment to another export listed establishment. The purpose of the MTC is to clearly identify export eligible product and to maintain the export eligibility of the product. The current system is very manual and there has the following issues:
Data entry errorsResource intensive                                                          Tedious audit processe
In 2003 MLA commenced an industry funded project in collaboration with AQIS to develop the standards to support an electronic version of the MTC. The eMTC system applies global standards to uniquely track and trace individual cartons of meat back to the country of origin and their production source. The eMTC system is built on the GS1 global trading standards for unique product identification (GS1 bar code) and electronic messaging (EANCOM despatch advice message).
The eMTC system was developed to:lower the cost and administration time requiredallow the requirements of eMTCs to be built into the various company inventory systems, allowing the company to run one system for all their inventory management and eMTC requirementsprovide a higher level of security as an independent message is sent electronically and reconciled to the physical shipmentallow the inclusion of details of every carton, carcase, pallet and case that comprises a shipmentprovide a faster system and a higher level for 'Track Forward' and 'Trace Back'assist in meeting export customer requirements for bio-security and source verification of product
Project A.SCC.0027 provided technical assistance with the implementation of the eDEC and eMTC messaging systems.
Project A.SCC.0056 supported eMTC Business and Technical Development in 2010. This project involved Management for Technology delivering technical expertise for the electronic exchange of regulatory data between companies and AQIS. This included working with AQIS, industry and system vendors to deliver any technical amendments to the electronic data exchange based on requests from the appropriate industry channels.
Strategy development and support activities
Project A.SCC.0018 delivered a comprehensive report on the viability and projected R&D costs for development of a rigorous tracking and verification system to protect the meat and livestock industry in Australia.
Project A.SCC.0032 developed the process and tools to enable beef processors to assess their tracking systems and associated risks to determine the likely costs of effectively improving tracking systems.
P.PIP.0044 investigated the development of a supply chain system to improve offal recovery in beef. .  A process was developed to record individual carcase offal components and reasons for their condemnation.  This system was also designed to meet the requirements of Australian Quarantine Inspection Service (AQIS) meat inspectors, abattoir management and producer suppliers.  The information was able to be electronically collated into abattoir data management programs and fed back to suppliers via email as a group summary and on an individual animal basis using the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS).