Product genealogy is the structured record of how a product was actually made, including the materials, components, lots, serial numbers, process steps, equipment, inspections, and quality events linked to it. It describes the as-built or as-manufactured history of a unit, batch, or lot.
In manufacturing systems, product genealogy is commonly used for traceability, containment analysis, quality investigations, recall scoping, and digital thread data models. It may include parent-child relationships between assemblies and subassemblies, material consumption records, split and merge events, rework history, timestamps, operator or station records, and inspection results.
Product genealogy should not be confused with a bill of materials or routing. A bill of materials defines the intended product structure, and a routing defines the planned sequence of operations. Product genealogy records what actually happened during production. It is also narrower than traceability as a general capability, because traceability includes the systems, procedures, and data controls used to follow products and materials across the lifecycle.