________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A TraceGains survey of 165 food safety, quality, and innovation leaders, reported by SupplySide, found that 69 percent of companies still depend on manual systems such as spreadsheets, fax, and email, even though 82 percent identify technology adoption as a top priority. Paper sits at the slow end of that spectrum. Where wet signatures and physical documents are still required, human error, missing paperwork and incomplete forms compound into delays the rest of the chain has to absorb.

Document delay triggers are caused by inefficient processes, not a lack of tools. Let’ s explore how they happen, specifically, in the food supply chain.

Why documentation delays happen in the food supply chain

The exact reasons for documents slowing down supply movement in the food industry vary from firm to firm. However, any of the following could occur, potentially causing logistics and sign-off lags:

■ Food safety auditing may require physical paperwork and wet signatures. If this documentation is mishandled, incorrectly signed, or even lost, supplies are not allowed to move.

■ Multi-party confusion( i. e., packers, carriers, and retailers all using different documents) may overcomplicate how paperwork is handled and processed, as there’ s no single source of truth.

■ Legacy approval processes( i. e., paperwork that requires one specific signature or sign-off from a specific department) may slow down how quickly shipments can move.

16