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Over the past couple of years, I've been side hustling a project that requires buying ingredients from multiple vendors. The quantities never work out 1:1, so s
by dylan604 1y ago
Over the past couple of years, I've been side hustling a project that requires buying ingredients from multiple vendors. The quantities never work out 1:1, so some ingredients from the first order get used with some from a new order from a different vendor. Each item has its own batch number which when used together for the final product yields a batch number on my end. I logged my batch number with the batch number for each of the ingredients in my product. As a solo person, it is a mountain of work, but nerdy me goes to that effort.
I'd assume that a drive manufacture does similar knowing which batch from which vendor the magnets, grease, or silicon all comes from. You hope you never need to use these records to do any kind of forensic research, but the one time you do need it makes a huge difference. So many people doing similar products that I do look at me with a tilted head while their eyes go wide and glaze over as if I'm speaking an alien language discussing lineage tracking.
- gorgoiler 1y agoAre you using a merkle tree for batch ids?: crust = f({flour, butter}) filling = f({fruit, sugar}) pie = f({crust, filling}) …where f = hash for a merkle tree with fixed size (but huge!) batch numbers, and f = repr for increasingly large but technically decipherable pie IDs.
- dylan604 1y agoNo. That sounds like someone that's had some sort of theory before. I just started up an uneducated man's database in the form of a spreadsheet. My batch 1001 sheet has all of the data necessary. My batch 1002 sheet has all of its data. I'm just a simpleton when it comes to this stuff.
- normie3000 1y ago> it is a mountain of work, but nerdy me goes to that effort. Presumably required for compliance, if you're selling your products.. Are there decent softwares for tracking this? Or do you use custom spreadsheets or something?
- mschuster91 1y agoWhat I'm aware of in the industry is that the large ones use SAP. Dunno if SAP provides that from scratch or if it's custom-built though, but I'd take a guess that it comes with their standard inventory/materials tracking/invoice handling package. Edit: looked it up, yep, part of SAP HANA LO-BM [1]. [1] https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/4eb099dbc8a6435c9b36a854a7e05522/e8feb753128eb44ce10000000a174cb4.html?locale=de-DE https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_S4HANA_ON-PREMISE/4eb099dbc8a6...
- jojobas 1y agoEvery decent ERP has it, even Microsoft ones, because anyone trading in any kind of food (batch tracking) or anything tech (serial nos) need it.
- mschuster91 1y agoI didn't even know Microsoft had an ERP solution. Wtf
- jojobas 1y agoWhy wouldn't they? They bought a number of established and emerging solutions and integrated them into their business licensing and sales, upgrading them as their platforms evolved. Some date back 40 years, starting as a standalone DOS program, now a SaaS.
- TMWNN 1y agoHighly relevant: TIL that Microsoft uses SAP software, despite competing with SAP with its own ERP software (Microsoft Dynamics) <https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1jo08m3/til_that_microsoft_uses_sap_software_despite/ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1jo08m3/til_...>
- dylan604 1y agoI just listed everything in spreadsheets. I have no insights into what real companies do. It's a major case of fake it till you make it. I know enough to that tracking this info is a good idea, so I brute forced it. I now at least have the data to use in a real system if that ever needs to be. Unlikely. I don't even have a company formed or do any kind of sales. It's all been a very involved hobby, with products given away. It's just been a fun way of being able to push back from the keyboard while not sitting on the couch in front of yet another screen.