GS1 US, Lawrenceville, N.J., has been developing a data quality certification program for new items that is expected to be launched by the end of the year.
A neutral, third-party certification program aimed at validating the accuracy of new item data would help retailers and manufacturers, observers said at the U Connect conference in June.
“It takes all the emotion out of the process,” said Kristin Andersen, project manager for Wegmans, Rochester, N.Y. “It's not my data and it's not your data.” In addition, she said, certification enables Wegmans to get away from the costly effort of auditing its trading partners.
For Hershey, the certification program represents an opportunity to “center on one certification,” rather than be certified by individual retailers, said Rob Hoffman, program manager at the Hershey, Pa., company.
Karen Spooner, global standards and GDS associate director for Kraft Foods, noted that using a third party to certify data is a great option, but manufacturers that establish an in-house audit process can also be very successful.
GS1 US decided to focus on just new items in this program because “it's intimidating to measure everything,” said Steve Vazzano, director of data quality for GS1 US. “Eventually, we'll get most items covered.”
GS1 US plans to make the program available “at no additional out-of-pocket cost to suppliers or retailers,” said Vazzano.
For suppliers, the certification program will help them be selected for data synchronization by retailers new to the process as well as established retailers, said Vazzano. It will also accelerate speed-to-shelf for new items and reduce the time spent in “data reviews” by retailers.
In the second quarter of this year, GS1 US conducted a pilot with suppliers selected by Wegmans, Supervalu and McLane. In the pilot, an employee of each supplier took an “open book test” on package measurement and GTIN allocation rules, among other areas.
Each supplier then sent GS1 US internal data audit records for some new items; GS1 US compared those records with data from the 1SYNC data pool, with 90% of items needing to fall within industry tolerances for accuracy. A physical audit was then taken of a sample of new items, and again 90% of items had to fall within industry tolerances.
Only one out of six suppliers passed all four steps in the pilot. “We expect a higher pass rate going forward because these suppliers weren't prepared,” said Vazzano.
Meanwhile, earlier this month Gladson, Lisle, Ill., announced the availability of a Certified Master Data Program that certifies that product information is in compliance with GS1 standards for product data accuracy. Gladson said Mars, PepsiCo and Kraft Foods are already using the data accuracy program, which tracks the accuracy of information for cases, inner packs and retail units.
Wegmans and McLane, Temple, Texas, said they are accepting product data from trading partners that were vetted by the new program. “We've seen significant improvement in the accuracy of data we receive from those manufacturers that are using Gladson services,” said Marianne Timmons, vice president of supply chain strategy at Wegmans, in a statement.
Beckey James, e-commerce manager of McLane said, “Gladson's certification program improves product data quality and accuracy, especially in terms of measurements, weights, case pack information, bar code scanability and GTIN allocation rules. This is an important step toward establishing trust in the quality and consistency of data we receive from vendors and facilitates our new product acceptance process.”