Traceability from scratch: variety, lot and cycle

Tracing a production means being able to answer, months later, where something came from, where it went through and what was done to it. That answer is not put together at the end: it builds up little by little, with each thing recorded as it happens. If the record starts well, the history writes itself.

In Growcast the record has three levels. The variety is the type of what is produced. The lot is the group of units followed as a single entity. And the cycle is each stage of that lot in a room. Tasks rest on those three: they are what is done to the lot at each stage.

1. 01
   Variety

   What is produced. Entered once in the catalogue and referenced by every lot.

2. 02
   Lot

   How much, and of which variety. It is the unit that is followed, end to end.

3. 03
   Cycle

   Each stage of the lot in a room, with its start and its end. It ties the room’s readings to the lot.

4. 04
   Tasks

   What is done to the lot during the cycle: irrigation, treatments, observations, discards.

Varieties: the catalogue

A variety is an entry in the production catalogue: what is produced and with which characteristics. Every lot references one, so they come first. Only the name is required; a description, genetics, phenotype, origin and maturation time in days can also be entered, and the cycle report uses that time as the reference estimated duration when the cycle has none of its own.

The catalogue makes every lot speak the same language. Instead of typing the name by hand in each lot, the variety is created once and picked from a menu, and that is what later allows results to be grouped and compared on the same basis. The manual gives a criterion for the level of detail: the same one results will be compared at later. If commercially something is a single thing, it probably does not need to be split by each cultivar.

A lot’s variety is fixed for life. The only way to change it is a conversion, which creates a new lot; the next note covers when it makes sense.

The lot: the unit that is followed

A lot is the traceable unit of the operation: a group of units followed as a single entity. It can represent seeds, seedlings, plants, bags or kilos of finished product. It is created with a variety, a name, a quantity and its unit. If the organization has automatic naming turned on, the name comes from a template and is not typed.

Creating it involves one decision: tracking it by quantity or by item. By quantity, the lot is a number with its unit. With per-item tracking, each unit is recorded separately, with its identifier, its status, its QR code and its own task history. The manual recommends it for high-value units followed one by one or small lots. A lot with items carries no unit of measure: operations move specific items instead of quantities.

Every lot and every item has its QR code, printed as a label to stick wherever the material is. Scanning it goes straight to its page, without searching the list.

A lot’s status is not chosen: it follows from its cycles. Active means it has an open cycle. Idle means it has none and is available as stock. Archived means it is no longer operated and remains only as a historical reference.

The cycle: each stage, in a room

A cycle is the record of a stage of a lot: which room it was in, when it started and when it ended. It is opened with Start cycle, giving the stage name, the room and, if known, the estimated duration in days. It can be started from the lot’s page, when creating the lot, or from the room with Add lot, for several lots at once.

From the moment the cycle opens, that room’s variables are associated with the lot. Growcast orders that data by the day of the stage, so day 12 of one lot is compared with day 12 of another even if they ran on different dates. While the cycle is open, the lot’s page shows a live card with the days elapsed, the progress against the estimated duration and the room; if it runs past the estimate, the progress turns red.

• A lot has a single open cycle at a time.
• Next cycle closes the current one and starts the next at the same moment, in the same room or another. The lot’s history is split into consecutive stages, with no gaps.
• Finish only asks for the end date, which cannot be before the start or in the future.
• If the platform arrives with productions already under way, Record cycles loads several past stages at once, each starting where the previous one ended.

Tasks: what is done to the lot

A task is what is done to one or more lots, with its date and who is responsible. Tasks need an open cycle: the lot has to be in a room for what is done to it to stay tied to that place and that stage. They can be planned, repeated with a recurrence rule or recorded after the fact.

Of all of them, the discard is the only one that changes the inventory, and the only one that can be recorded even when the lot has no open cycle. It is recorded with a quantity and a reason, and stays in the lot’s history. The others do not touch the quantity: they remain as a record of what was done, in the order it was done.

What remains

With those four pieces entered, the lot’s page gathers its history: the inventory with the initial quantity, the current one and everything that changed it; the tasks; the cycles, each with its room, its duration and the difference against the estimate; and the genealogy, if the lot came from another. From there the lot report opens, gathering the environment of the rooms it went through, the tasks performed, the water and supply consumption and its genealogy, ready to view, download or share.

Closing

• Varieties first, at the level of detail results will be compared at.
• One lot for each group to be followed, by quantity or by item.
• One cycle per stage, chained with Next cycle so no gaps are left.
• Tasks on the open cycle, and discards with their reason.

A lot’s history is not written at the end. It is written while it happens.

The next note starts from a question that often reaches support: after harvest, convert the lot or start a new cycle? And it goes on with what comes after: the stored product, productions that come together and the lot that yields two products.

Continue with the lot’s decisions→