The batch log

The batch log is the least interesting document in the business and the one that decides whether a problem is contained or catastrophic.

What one row has to capture

Date. Product and formula version. Batch code. Batch size. The incoming lot number of every component. Grind screen. Mixing time where it is a blend. Check-weights from a sample. Number of units produced. Who made it.

That is one line on a page and it takes two minutes at the end of a run.

Why it is one row and not three books

Producers often keep a formula somewhere, a delivery note somewhere else, and nothing at all about what was made on a given day. Separately, none of those answer a question.

The batch log is the join. It is what connects a jar code in a customer's hand to the formula version, and through the component lot numbers to a supplier's certificate. Without it the other records are just paper.

The check-weight column

Worth singling out because it does double duty. It is your evidence that the net weight declaration on that batch was accurate, and it is your early warning that something has changed: a new grind, a settled bin, a tired person at the end of a long run.

Record a few actual weights rather than a tick. A number you can look back at tells you about drift; a tick tells you somebody was present.

What it lets you answer

A customer has a jar with a code on it. What is in it, when was it made, which supplier lot did each component come from, and which other jars share that lot.

That question arrives rarely and it arrives without warning, usually because a supplier has issued a recall rather than because anything was wrong with your work. Being able to answer it in ten minutes rather than not at all is the entire reason the log exists.

References