There’s been a common thread running through retailers’ presentations at a number of supply chain industry events I’ve attended this year in the US and Europe; retailers are hungry for much more product data, and the quality of the data really matters.
The drivers for the expanding requirements are well known: demand for data, such as nutritional information and product specifications driven by the consumer; environmental, packaging and legal information required by government and regulatory bodies; and of course data designed to improve supply chain effectiveness. But I’m still struck by the unrelenting nature of retailer demands and I have to ask the question, will suppliers be able to cope?
The industry is constantly searching for new supply chain initiatives to get products to market faster and to utilize warehouse space, delivery vehicles and shelf space more effectively – all depend on a solid foundation of accurate, clean and consistent product data.
Currently there are more than 200 GS1 standard attributes, used to describe the characteristics of every item, case and pack bought and sold in retail outlets (although only about 60 or 70 of these attributes are actively used by trading partners). In addition, most retailers ask for extra data attributes specific to their needs, and in the coming years the average number of product attributes required by retailers is expected to grow to 350 or more.
Suppliers, distributors and retailers are already struggling to maintain consistency, accuracy and quality across supply chain data today, but if they are going to cope in the future they really need to put the right processes and procedures in place now so as not to be swamped.