Wakefern Testing New-Item Supplier Portal

MICHAEL GARRY

KEASBEY, N.J. — Wakefern Food Corp. here recently completed the development of a new-item portal intended to eliminate paper forms and manual keypunching for suppliers bringing new items to market, said Michael Durning, the cooperative wholesaler’s manager of data integrity.

“We have just begun a pilot phase [for the portal] with a limited number of grocery suppliers,” he said.

The portal is part of a three-pronged strategy to keep product data as accurate as possible, reflecting products’ true dimensions and weight. The other parts include data synchronization with suppliers and the creation of a centralized data integrity department focused on data quality and control of master item data.

The data integrity department presently supports five product divisions, “and we are working with the remaining divisions to complete the transition,” said Durning.

Read More of Today's Headlines