The ability to follow a product, material or component through recorded stages of its supply chain.
Traceability connects records so that a material, component or finished product can be followed through successive stages of its supply chain. Useful records identify what moved, where it came from and which processing or production stages it passed through. Their continuity matters because a gap limits how far an origin or production claim can be checked. Traceability can also preserve information relevant to later recovery and recycling. It differs from transparency, which concerns making information available. A traceable product has a documented history, but that history still needs assessment before it can support a claim about responsible production.
In job listings
Burberry’s ESG Operations Coordinator role in London required collaboration with global sourcing, raw material procurement, product development and product sampling teams to support responsible sourcing and traceability requirements. The breadth of those teams shows why traceability work crosses production stages. The employer required traceability without prescribing a record format or software package. Search local jobs for “traceability”.
