GS1 US Foodservice Initiative Gains Steam
The GS1 Foodservice Industry Initiative continues to pick-up steam. The initiative was founded by 55 manufacturers, distributors and operators who came together to create a voluntary industry roadmap for the adoption of GS1 standards for product identification, location identification and the use of GDSN for the synchronization of product information across the supply chain.
The roadmap provides a number of implementation steps covering the implementation of GDSN and the use (scanning) of barcodes by distributors. The GDSN implementation is divided into two phases: Phase 1 attributes consisting of “core” or “logistics” attributes and Phase 2 attributes consisting largely of “marketing” and “nutritional” attributes. In addition, the roadmap provides two timelines: one for companies already “experienced” with GS1 standards and GDSN and one for companies that are “new” to GS1 standards. The general timelines for manufacturers being ready with Phase 1 attributes is later this year and with Phase 2 being 2011.
By adopting the GS1 standards, the foodservice industry has the opportunity to reduce costs and improve customer service. Use of the GS1 GTIN and GDSN standards will eliminate the need for every leg of the supply chain to assign its own product identifiers, and the need for multiple proprietary solutions to synchronizing product data.
Over the last several months, various working teams of the initiative have been busy finishing training materials and finalizing the Phase 2 data attributes. At the same time, many manufacturers have been readying their Phase 1 data and some are exploring how they will address the Phase 2 requirements. Alongside manufacturer activities, distributors have been planning how they will receive and use the GDSN data.
For more detail on the roadmap and Foodservice initiative, please visit www.gs1us.org/foodservice.