Chemicals distribution: traceability from supplier to delivery

Context

Distributing raw materials and chemicals isn't moving boxes: it's moving lots with an identity — safety datasheets, expiry dates, storage and transport constraints, clients who ask for an account of every step. When the supply chain calls about a recall or an audit, "which supplier did the lot delivered to X come from?" is a question you must answer in minutes, not days.

This too is an experience the Gitogi team lived from the inside: the real processes of a distributor in the sector, told in anonymised form.

The challenge

1. Traceability was detective work. Lots came in and went out, but the supplier → warehouse → client thread had to be reconstructed by hand across documents. Possible, but slow — and slowness, facing a recall, is risk.

2. Orders lived in three channels. Phone, e-mail, the odd client portal. Each channel with its own confirmations, misunderstandings and "but I said". The sales office was a permanent translator between channels and warehouse.

3. Documents were prepared from scratch every time. Transport documents and attachments for every shipment demanded manual care — and the right safety datasheet, in the right revision, had to be there every time.

4. Stock levels were discovered at stocktaking. Between promised sales and actual availability there was a grey zone that produced either missed sales or promises to chase.

The approach

Here too, the process first: mapping the order-to-delivery flow with sales, warehouse and logistics together — because one person's problem was almost always the symptom of someone else's process.

Then, by degrees:

1. One order flow: whatever the entry channel, the order lives in one place, with status and confirmations visible to sales and warehouse alike.
2. The lot as a first-class citizen: receipt, location, picking and delivery logged per lot — traceability stops being an investigation and becomes a query.
3. Documents generated by the flow: the transport document is born from the shipment, with attachments linked to the item — the correct revision, every time.
4. Real-time stock per warehouse and per lot, so sales promises rest on true availability.

What changed

The difference is measured in the questions answered in minutes: where is the lot? what can I promise? what left, and with which documents? When the answers live in the process — not in people's memory — the business scales without multiplying office work.

How we approach it today

This experience is why warehouse, purchasing and sales are processes we treat with particular respect. To see how we set them up with an integrated ERP:

• Warehouse management software
• Purchasing and supplier software
• Sales software
• Our Odoo Partner path

Does your distribution business have the same symptoms? Let's talk — 30 minutes, no strings attached.