Inspection
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Traceability

The ability to reliably trace the history, identity, relationships or status of an asset, item or piece of information throughout its lifecycle.

Definition

Traceability is the ability to identify, track and verify the history, identity, relationships and status of physical assets, engineering objects, materials, documents or digital information throughout their lifecycle. Traceability enables organizations to demonstrate data integrity, regulatory compliance, quality assurance and effective lifecycle management by maintaining verifiable links between related information and activities.

Why It Matters

Traceability provides verifiable links between assets, engineering information and lifecycle activities throughout their operational history.

In Practice

Traceability is achieved through the consistent use of unique identifiers, controlled documentation, revision management and information governance, allowing engineering information to be accurately related across physical assets, drawings, databases and enterprise systems.

Common Misuse

Traceability establishes verifiable relationships between assets and information throughout the lifecycle, whereas a Tag provides the unique identifier used to establish many of those relationships.

Term Details
Synonyms:
Traceability; Data Traceability; Asset Traceability; Information Traceability
Classification:
Quality Assurance
Concept
Advanced
Applications

Information Management; Quality Management; Asset Management.

Where It's Used

Manufacturing.; Oil and gas.; Petrochemical.; Infrastructure.; Power generation.

References

ISO 9001; ISO 55001; ISO 14224

See It In VisualAIM

VisualAIM connects glossary concepts to the asset records, inspection histories, and workflows they describe.

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