This creates an indirect operational challenge for both authorities and supply chain stakeholders.
Because during the transition period, we end up having two types of stock in the warehouse for the same product:
=Serialized stock (Traceability compliant)
=legacy stock (Not Traceability compliant)
so,you may find one product with two stocks, traceability compliant and not traceability compliant and this creates real complexity on the ground.
=Where the challenges appear?
• Same SKU stored in two locations to avoid mixing
• During picking / outbound: the customer MUST know which order is traceable and which is not
• Invoicing becomes tricky: one invoice can’t represent a “mixed compliance status”
=How to handle this?
this is not track and trace problem… it’s an operational problem.
And the fix is mostly operational discipline supported by system flags.
From a system perspective
=ERP / WMS should provide a flag to separate traceable vs non-traceable stock.
=invoice printing should allow separate printout for serialized items.
=Physically identifies the compliant shipments by SSCC (maybe with written information on label as reported or compliant shipment)
From an operational perspective
=We treat it as FEFO-style behavior:
finish the non-serialized inventory first → then move to serialized stock.
Same concept… but different business rule.
Forward-Looking implementation sounds simple on paper…because it enables smooth transition to the pharmaceutical market towards the track and trace implementation…but the transition window is one of the most sensitive phases in pharmaceutical track & trace.
Mixing the two worlds (compliant vs non-compliant) is where most of the hidden pain actually exists.