QRS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL SCeBF Evolution of the UPC and Data Synchronization Richard Randall,...

QRS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL

SCeBF

Evolution of the UPCand Data Synchronization

Richard Randall, QRS Corporation May 20, 2003

QRS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL © Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2003. All rights reserved.

Agenda

Who is QRS and the QRS Catalogue

What is the UPC

How retailer industry has benefited

Evolution of the UPC EAN GTIN

Data Synchronization vs. Data Normalization

The role of a Global Registry

UCCnet’s GLOBALregistry


QRS’ EC Strategy for Retailer Success Retailer

VendorManufacturer/ Supplier

Connect

Transact

Privat

e La

bel

Branded Good

Distribution

Branded Goods Manufacturing

Differentiate

Collaborate

Data Exchange

QRS Network

Retailer Strategy

Software Services


QRS Overview

Customers:

Founded in 1988 in partnership with IBM, public ’93 (QRSI) 8,000+ customers in retail supply chain 2002 revenue – $136M Providing B2B e-commerce supply chain services Corporate headquarters San Francisco Bay Area, with

offices in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Richmond (VA), Toronto, London, Paris

Profile:

Top 20 General Merchandise retailers – $530B in sales

Top 20 General Merchandise manufacturers – $60B in sales

General Merchandise and Apparel

19 of top 20 food retailers – $200B in sales

9 of the top 15 Packaged Goods manufacturers – $270B in sales

Grocery and Consumer Packaged Goods


QRS Overview

Applications& Services:

Over 300,000 trading partnerships enabled More than 500 million electronic documents per year Manage over 90 million active UPC/EANs 300,000 store visits annually to monitor price competition &

accuracy

“Gee Whiz:”

Enabling & Support• Program Management• Dedicated Enabling Professionals• 7x24 Customer Support• Industry Consultants• Customer Conferences & Web-inars

Hosted & Software Services

Trading Community Management

Services • Data Exchange – EDI “mailboxing”

(Traditional VAN and IP based)• Managed EC -- Web Forms (EDI to

Web), EDI-to-FAX, etc.• UPC Management• Merchandise Ticket and UCC-128

Label printing

QRSCatalogue

QRSExchange

QRSSourcing

QRSInsight

QRSRetail Intelligence Services

In-Store Services


QRS Catalogue

Vendor A

Distributor B

Supplier C

Wholesaler D

Manufacturer E

Vendor F

Distributor G

Retailer B

Retailer C

QRSQRSCatalogueCatalogue

Over 90 million items from over 4,000 vendors, distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers

Improved timing, reduced errors, increased sales, and overall reduced expenses

EDI

XML

System edits and Customer Support greatly improves data reliability and integrity

Improved vendor discipline/compliance

Since vendor’s data is the same to all retailers, a centralized database/catalog provides significant efficiency – one connection – consistent format & quality

EDI

XML

Retailer A


Product Synchronization Database

Not a “shopping/consumer” catalog

Database for synchronizing product information between retailers and their suppliers

Historically used by department store vertical… Why?…

Department Store/GMA2,000,000+ items

Mass Merchant200,000-500,000 items

Grocery Store50,000 items

Fashion – 1,000s ofnew items daily

Highly branded – lots of vendor info

3K price changesweekly


What is the UPC (Universal Product Code)

Industry standard for product identification – facilitates supply chain efficiencies

Standard administered by the UCC (Uniform Code Council)

Number System

CharacterManufacturer

Number Unique Item Reference Numberto Color/Size Level

Module 10Checkdigit

Company Prefix (Block ID)


Benefits of UPC

Retailer

Eliminates need for ticketing

Ability to efficiently identify unique product at Point-of-Sale

Facilitates EDI

Facilitates more advanced initiatives such as:– Cross-Docking/Assumed

Receiving

– Scan Based Trading

– Auto Replenishment

Efficiencies of scanning at receiving, POS, Physical inventory

Supplier/Manufacturer

Facilitates EDI

More accurate orders

Fewer invoice discrepancies

Product gets to stores faster

Improved in-stock position

Efficiencies of scanning


Evolution of the UPC

Beat out OCR and magnetic strip

Internationally became the EAN (European Article Number)

– Same barcode structure and checkdigit formula as UPC, but 13-digits

– First two digits are Country Code

– Can make a UPC into an EAN by adding a leading “0” (Country Codes for North America are 00-09)

The GTIN (Global Trade Item Number)– Sunrise 2005

– Truly global standard

– Same barcode structure and checkdigit formula as UPC/EAN, but 14-digits

Beyond retail…

12-digit UPC 13-digit EAN


Quick GTIN Q&A

What does the acronym “GTIN” stand for? Global Trade Item Number

What is GTIN? (Hint: What are GTINs?) The new 14-digit structure to uniquely identify trade items, comprising the

existing EAN.UCC data structures

When is the GTIN “sunrise” date? January 1, 2005

Will the UPC and EAN be retired after 2005? No!

What was the reason for the new 14-digit structure? Because we are running out of UPC Block IDs – wrong To create a truly global standard for product identification

Who will potentially use (or not use) the GTIN-14? Probably – Manufacturers and retailers dealing in cases of a single trade item Probably not – Manufacturers dealing cases composed of multiple trade items


The GTIN “Family”

Global Trade Item Numbers include: Existing

– UPC (UCC-12)

– EAN (EAN/UCC-13)

– EAN/UCC-8

– SCC-14 (ITF-14)

New (2005 Sunrise)

– GTIN-14 (EAN/UCC-14)

14-digits for database format & electronic communications:

00123456789012

01234567890123

00000012345678

12345678901234

12345678901234


Pre-packUPC-12: 123456 00721 5GTIN-14: 00 123456 00721 5 or

GTIN-14 UsageThe first digit of a

GTIN-14 is a level of packing indicator

A higher level of packing of a unique trade item can have the same “base” GTIN number:

– with a higher first digit, indicating a higher level of packing of the item

– with the correct checkdigit

Widget X

Case of 12 Widget X’s

GTIN-14: 30 123456 00001 9

UPC-12: 123456 00001 8GTIN-14: 00 123456 00001 8

Pallet of 4 cases of Widget X

Pre-packUPC-12: 123456 00721 5GTIN-14: 00 123456 00721 5 orGTIN-14: 10 123456 00001 5

If a GTIN-14 begins with a zero, the number is actually one of the other, shorter GTIN data structures.

The actual GTIN type may be determined by the number of leading zeros on a GTIN-14.


GTIN-14 UsagecontinuedThe first occurrence of a

GTIN-14, always working from lower packing level to higher packing level, is a “0”

A packing indicator of “0” does not necessarily indicate that the GTIN represents the consumer unit

A higher level packing indicator can only be used if the lower pack level contains all the same trade item

Packing Indicator “9” reserved for variable measure/price

Mixed Case of 4 eachof Widget X, Y, & Z Pre-pack

UPC-12: 123456 00721 5GTIN-14: 00 123456 00721 5

X UPC-12: 123456 00001 8Y UPC-12: 123456 00002 5Z UPC-12: 123456 00003 2

Pallet of 4 mixed cases

Widget X, Y, & Z

WrongGTIN-14: 20 123456 00003 8


WrongGTIN-14: 20 123456 00003 8

GTIN-14: 30 123456 00721 6


Note: When dealing with a UPC the second digit of the GTIN-14 will/must always be a zero.


How is UCC dealing with a limited number of blocks? Conservation

Creating additional Company Prefixes by increasing the length of the prefix (which reduces the the number of UPCs available to the vendor to assign)

Number System

CharacterManufacturer

Number Unique Item Reference Numberto Color/Size Level

Module 10Checkdigit

Company Prefix (Block ID)

Company Prefix (Block)

Item Reference Checkdigit Total digits Total Items

Historically 6 5 1 12 100,000

March 2000 8 3 1 12 1,000

January 2002 7 4 1 12 10,000

January 2002 9 2 1 12 100


QRS Catalogue

Vendor A

Distributor B

Supplier C

Wholesaler D

Manufacturer E

Vendor F

Distributor G

Retailer B

Retailer C


Over 90 million items from over 4,000 vendors, distributors, wholesalers, and manufacturers

Improved timing, reduced errors, increased sales, and overall reduced expenses

EDI

XML

System edits and Customer Support greatly improves data reliability and integrity

Improved vendor discipline/compliance

Since vendor’s data is the same to all retailers, a centralized database/catalog provides significant efficiency – one connection – consistent format & quality

EDI

XML

Retailer A


Data Synchronization vs. Normalization

Synchronization

What is in Company B’s database is the same as what is in Company A’s database

Key is data is not changed by user or system

Key for automating processes between companies – have to have the same data

Leads to retailer requirements to vendors that content on all media must match – labels, literature, databases, etc.

Normalization

Data is changed to meet certain standards/rules

Key for searching across a database, and for consistent “look and feel”

Two different objectives, which require separate fields within the database or two separate

databases


Concept:

• Vendors would typically load products on local/regional catalogs of their choice, and a subset of the data elements would be forwarded from the regional catalogs to the UCCnet registry

• Retailers could then find in the registry where the data resides, and be routed to the appropriate data pool (long term direction)

Registry – a router or “yellow pages” that routes data requests to the appropriate appropriate data pool.

Data Pool – Third-party catalogs, such as the QRS Catalogue which enable vendors on industry standards related to product information, and ultimately publish the aggregated data of multiple vendors in one database accessible by registries or directly by retailers.

Global Registry

Vendor A

Distributor B

Supplier C

Wholesaler D

Manufacturer E

Vendor F

Distributor G

Retailer A

Retailer B

Retailer C


World’s largest –World’s largest –90 mil. items90 mil. items

4,000 vendors4,000 vendors

Regional Data PoolRegional Data Pool(Catalog) 1(Catalog) 1

Regional Data PoolRegional Data Pool(Catalog) 2(Catalog) 2

Regional Data PoolRegional Data Pool(Catalog) … n(Catalog) … n

Glo

ba

l R

eg

istr

yG

lob

al

Re

gis

try


Various data synchronization models

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R

Current:Retailer usesseveral catalogs



Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R


Current:Retailer uses asingle catalog



Data Pool 2

Data Pool 3

V

V

V

R

UC

Cn

et

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R



Future:Retailer usesregistry to locatecatalog (data pool)


UCCnet GLOBALregistry

The UCC established a subsidiary, UCCnet to provide additional services to their members.

UCCnet’s primary service is their GLOBALregistry

– Phase 1: GLOBALregistry is actually a “thick” registry holding up to 70 attributes per item with data loaded from enablers and data pools.

– Phase 2: when technology and standards are defined, GLOBALregistry is a true registry, routing requests for data to the registered data pool.

QRS Catalogue a preferred partner of UCCnet



Data Pool 2

Data Pool 3

V

V

V

R

UC

Cn

et

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R

Catalog 2

Catalog 3

V

V

V

R



Future:Retailer usesregistry to locatecatalog (data pool)

Issues:-Architecture for “Phase 2”-Efficiency/response time of making two hops-Schema or attribute list for different industry sub-segments-Language translation, regional pricing and regulations, . . .-Synchronization vs. Normalization


For more information, contact QRS –

Phone: 800-UPC-TALK (800-872-8255)

Web: www.qrs.com

E-mail: Sales [email protected]

Support [email protected]

Careers [email protected]

Alliances [email protected]

Richard Randall, QRS Industry Consultant

510-215-3765 or [email protected]

QRS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL SCeBF Evolution of the UPC and Data Synchronization Richard Randall,...

Documents

Transcript of QRS PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL SCeBF Evolution of the UPC and Data Synchronization Richard Randall,...