A system and method is provided for tracking unfinished ceramic structures moved by a conveyor system through manufacturing loops which preserves both identification and manufacturing information during manufacture, and in particular during mark-obliterating steps. The method includes loading the marked, unfinished ceramic structure at a selected position on the conveyor system; relaying the identification mark and the selected position of the unfinished ceramic structure on the conveyor system; conveying the unfinished ceramic structure through a mark-obliterating manufacturing step, and then identifying the ceramic structure relaying and processing information relating to its position on the conveyor system. The ceramic structure is then re-marked with a second mark after completing all mark-obliterating steps of manufacturing, such as firing and contouring. Both the first and second marks include the combination of a machine-readable and human-readable component, such as the combination of a two-dimensional bar code and an alpha-numeric code.