Wednesday, 7 December 2016

GS1 System ~

GS1 JAPAN


 What is this whole traceability thingy?





In this post, we are going to talk about one of the biggest traceability system which is called GS1 system.




GS1 system are used in few countries all around the world including Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Austria, Ireland, United States of America, United Kingdom, Belgium and Luxemborg, Egypt, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Denmark, Guatemala, Sweden, Brazil, Italy, Canada, India, Switzerland, Germany and Australia.


      GS1 Standards are widely used in the supply chain between processed food manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers in Japan, and EAN/UPC are marked  or/and ITF symbol encoded GTIN that is broadly used for shipping operations and receiving , traceability and merchandise control, etc. Standard EDI and product databases also use these GTINs.



       Besides that, the use of GS1 standards has not common among raw material manufacturers and processed food manufacturers in the upstream of the supply chain, and many traded raw materials do not even have identification numbers nor barcodes.
Therefore, manual management or visual observation is common.




      However, in recent years, there have been cases in which some processed food manufacturers request raw material manufactures to mark barcode on the raw materials they receive for efficient receiving and shipping operations, inventory management and traceability development.



      Since GS1 Standards have not been widely used, and raw material manufacturers receive various requests from processed food manufacturers to mark barcodes in different items/ formats (which character set to use, the number of digits, etc.).
Therefore, there have been issues, such as the manufacturers need to mark different barcodes (encoding different information items/formats) according to clients even for the same raw materials.



      There were concerns that if more processed food manufacturers demand different barcodes on the products shipped to them, the burden on raw material manufacturers dealing with the situation would grow, or the burden would be so great that the manufacturers would not be able to respond.
                                   


   Figure 1.1.3-1 State of GS1 Standards Use in Japan











 Benefits of using GS 1 system :





a) Increase in the rate at which raw material manufacturers marking barcodes (source marking) on raw materials.


- Figure 1.1 has described standard data format on barcode for raw materials. This makes it possible for raw material/material manufacturers to “extinguish the need to change codes,” enabling them to “deliver products under a standard format.”Manufacturers can purchase these standard barcodes for more efficient operations and/or keeping records if more raw materials are source marked.              

        

Figure 1.1.3-2 Standard data format (Application Identifiers) on barcodes






b) Highly accurate shipping and receiving operations


- By standardizing data format (Application Identifiers) on barcodes for raw materials, the percentage of source marking by raw material manufacturers is targeted to increase. Work can be done through visual observation can be changed to work using by using barcodes in receiving and shipping operations. A barcode enables information to be scanned quickly and accurately by a machine and processed by a computer, and is expected to have the following effects:
Prevent mistakes in receiving and shipping, due to mistakes in checking through visual observation or misunderstandings
Extinguish inconsistencies in working hours/quality depending on workers
Reduce the burden on workers and reduce the problems of checking products
Save time and save labor costs through using GS1 system







Figure 1.1.3-3 Shift of Receiving and Shipping Operations Using Barcodes






c) Improved precision for inputting data or reduce working time


-To ensure traceability, there is a need to record/save information on arrival dates, places shipped to or places received from, product names and numbers of raw materials were received/shipped. This recording/saving process can be done manually, but by automatically retrieving data from barcodes into the system, the recording can be done more quickly with more exact.




Figure 1.1.3-4 shift to Data Using Barcodes











d) Increase speed handling of analysis or inquiries



-When there is a request information from a consumer or if an emergency occurs, the receiving and shipping records of the raw materials will be referred. The records can be saved on paper, but when data from barcodes are transferred to a database to be managed and saved, it can be handled quickly while maintaining trust between workers and manufactures.



Figure 1.1.3-5 Transferring Receiving and shipping Records to a Database











That is all for GS1 system. We hope we cleared some of the confusion in your head but do type something in the comment section if you have any curiosity about the topic. Thanks!












(All sources of images taken from GS1 Handbook_2016-2017)


                                               

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