The automotive industry has increasing requirements regarding traceability along the whole supply chain.
To ensure this traceability, flow of information on specific properties of material and parts has to be
aligned and synchronized with the flow of the materials / parts.
This can be achieved by a unique material label (MAT label) on the smallest package unit containing a
clearly defined set of traceability information. The VDA 4992 MAT Label recommendation defines a MAT label
that can be used
in the whole automotive supply chain for the above mentioned purposes.
The definition of VDA 4992 MAT label takes into account the work accomplished by an industry consortium,
which has published an own
MAT label under the designation MAT-Label Version 2.6.
The MAT-Label is a complement to existing logistics labels such as VDA 4902,
Odette Transport Label or VDA 4994 Global Transport Label. It does not replace logistics labels.
For the material label there are two different sizes with different contents.
The small MAT label has a size of 50 x 20 mm.
The larger version of the MAT label has a size of 78 x 45 mm according to the VDA standard.
The most important information on traceability is: