European regulation requires any lot to be traced end to end in under four hours. We implement the ERP that makes it possible without halting production.
The food industry operates with near-zero margin for error: a contaminated lot that cannot be located within hours becomes a product-recall crisis with regulatory, financial and reputational consequences. EC Regulation 178/2002 requires all food-chain operators — manufacturers, processors, distributors — to have systems that identify the origin and destination of any product at every stage of production and distribution. The IFS Food and BRC standards add a further operational requirement: carry out a full trace in under four hours when an alert or an inspection by the competent authority occurs.
Most agri-food SMEs in Spain still run on legacy systems or spreadsheets that were adequate a decade ago but can no longer withstand today's regulatory pressure or the complexity of a supply chain with multiple suppliers, varied raw-material inputs and tight expiry windows. The result is partial traceability, inventory valued at average cost instead of lot-level FEFO, and response times during an inspection that comfortably exceed the four-hour requirement. Royal Decree 562/2025, in force since July 2025, has further tightened the digitalisation and traceability obligations within Spain's official food-chain control system.
Summum Sistemas has been implementing management solutions for SMEs and mid-market companies for more than sixteen years. In the agri-food sector we start from the ERP best suited to the client's size and processes — Odoo, Sage or Dynamics, depending on the case — and configure it with lot-traceability modules, formula and recipe management, per-lot quality control and FEFO warehouse management. Summum's team works directly with the group's Quality division to coordinate, within the same project, ISO 22000 or IFS implementation if the client also needs certification, so the client does not have to manage two separate suppliers for the software and the standard.
We analyse current receiving, production, storage and dispatch workflows. We identify traceability blind spots, lot-management bottlenecks and the actual degree of compliance with EC Regulation 178/2002 and IFS/BRC. We deliver a gap report and a target process map before touching any existing system.
We select the platform best suited to the company's size and production complexity. We configure article masters with lot attributes, FEFO pick-sequencing algorithms, formula and recipe management with per-ingredient costing, and quality-control checklists linked to each production order.
We migrate the historical record of suppliers, articles, recipes and existing lots into the new system. We train warehouse, production and administration teams on the new workflows, running lot-trace simulations that reproduce a real food-alert scenario to verify that response times meet IFS/BRC requirements.
Go-live runs in parallel with the previous system for the first weeks to ensure operational continuity. Once stabilised, the Summum team remains available for technical and functional support, and coordinates with Summum Calidad on any audit or certification renewal that requires ERP documentation.
The operational detail: what we deliver as part of the work and what we keep alive afterwards.
Bidirectional lot traceability
Upstream tracing (origin of every ingredient in a finished-goods lot) and downstream tracing (all destinations of a raw-material lot), with a report generated in seconds directly from the ERP.
FEFO management in warehouse and production
Automatic application of the First Expired, First Out rule in pick proposals and in the supply to production lines. Reduces expiry waste and ensures correct stock rotation.
Formulas, recipes and production orders
Formula management with version control, raw-material requirements calculation per order, real production costs per lot and deviation logging for quality control.
Integrated quality control
Control sheets linked to every raw-material receipt and every production order. Non-conformity logging, automatic quarantine-lot blocking and traceability of each analysis result.
Alerts and product recall
Product-recall simulation and procedure integrated in the ERP: immediate location of all affected lots in own stock or already dispatched, with a customer and quantity list for notification within the regulatory deadline.
Integration with Verifactu and e-invoicing
Direct connection to the certified Verifactu e-invoicing module to meet tax obligations from the same system, with no manual exports or double data entry.
The agri-food ERP is the digital backbone of the business; Summum Calidad covers the ISO 22000, IFS or BRC standard the client needs to certify, and Summum IA can add demand forecasting and document classification on top of the data the ERP generates.
ISO 22000 implementation (HACCP and food-safety management system): when the client needs the certification alongside the software, Summum Calidad coordinates the normative project in parallel with the ERP rollout.
View service → sistemasIf the food company also distributes or manages third-party warehouses, the distribution ERP and WMS extends logistics coverage with multi-warehouse management and complex dispatching.
View service → iaOn top of the ERP's historical sales and production data, Summum IA can deploy demand-forecasting models that optimise purchasing planning and reduce the risk of stockouts or overstock.
View service →Article 18 requires the ability to identify from whom any food, ingredient or raw material has been received, and to whom it has been supplied, at every stage of production, processing and distribution. The obligation is technology-neutral: the law does not prescribe the system, only that it must work and be available to the competent authorities on request. In practice, an ERP with lot traceability is the most efficient and auditable way to comply.
The IFS Food and BRC/BRCGS certification standards — widely required by manufacturers and distributors that supply major retail chains — demand that auditors be shown a full lot trace, both upstream (raw materials) and downstream (destinations), within four hours. Royal Decree 562/2025 has further reinforced the requirement to have digital procedures in place for official controls.
It depends on production complexity, number of SKUs, order volume and whether the company already has an existing solution. Odoo is a strong option for SMEs that need full functionality with controlled licence costs. Sage 200 or Dynamics 365 Business Central are appropriate when the company already uses the Microsoft ecosystem or needs integration with advanced reporting tools. We evaluate these variables during the initial diagnosis before recommending a platform.
Yes. Summum Sistemas implements the ERP and Summum Calidad, the group's quality division, can accompany the ISO 22000, IFS Food or FSSC 22000 implementation process in parallel. The advantage is that both teams share the initial diagnosis and process flows, which avoids duplication and accelerates both the software project and the certification project. The certificate is issued by an accredited third party (AENOR, Bureau Veritas, SGS, etc.); Summum prepares the company and supports it through the audit.
For an SME with 15 to 80 employees and a medium-complexity production process, the typical implementation timeline runs from four to eight months, from diagnosis to stable go-live. The factor that most influences the schedule is the quality and accessibility of existing data (article masters, recipes, suppliers) and the internal team's availability for training and validation phases.