esco Introduces Transparent Processes

Optimized Tracking and Tracing

Beginning of this year, esco - european salt company GmbH & Co. KG introduced an automated product tracking and tracing system at all German production sites and sales offices as well as at its Dutch subsidiary Frisia Zout B.V., Harlingen. Further production sites in other European countries are scheduled to follow soon.

As a consequence of recent years' frequent food scandals, the European Union had issued a decree placing the obligation to all manufacturers of food and feed products to introduce respective tracking and tracing systems, effective on 1 January 2005. Each link in the production chain - suppliers, manufacturers as well as retailers - must be able to give information about the origin, production and whereabouts of additivies and products at any time. This relates respectively to the preceding and succeeding commercial stage.

Due to the number and variety of articles and production processes, esco decided for an IT-based solution and invested into respective hard- and software systems and components. Besides the need to introduce scan technology, the respective sites had to implement radio networks and to partly reorganise their production and packaging processes.

"When looking for the best-suited system, esco strictly followed the recommendations of GS1 which aims at harmonising the interests of commerce and industry," explains Stephan Gatz, Project Manager and Supply Chain Coordination Manager at esco. "Cross-interface communication based on EAN-128 has become a standard that is utilized by a great majority of businesses - and also by our customers."

A standardised transport label with a barcode is applied to each pallet, providing a clear identification. The barcode label allows to exactly track which goods were supplied to which customer, or which additive was received from which supplier. Furthermore, it is possible to assign specific additional information to the label, e.g. best-before dates, weight, etc.

Next step is to integrate other European production sites of esco, such as France, Spain, Belgium and Portugal, which have been using individual tracking systems so far.

Salt for Europe

esco - european salt company, a member of the K+S Group, is Europe's leading salt producer. With corporate headquarters in Hanover, Germany, the company operates a total of 17 production sites and sales offices in Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, from where it supplies customers in Europe and beyond.

With a production of more than 5 million tons of rock salt, evaporated salt and sea salt per year, esco offers a comprehensive range of high quality salt products including pharmaceutical and food-grade salt as well as salt tablets and compacted salt for water softening. Furthermore, the product portfolio includes industrial and de-icing salt, brine and salt for various chemical uses. In 2004, the company posted revenues of approx. Euro 360 mio., with a total workforce of 1,380 employees.