Dave DeWalt from Franklin Foodservice Solutions publishes a monthly newsletter focused on supply chain issues. His April “Foodservice Marketing Insights” newsletter presented comments regarding the GS1 initiative, and IFDA’s efforts to elevate this issue to an industry initiative. His “Still At It” commentary holds merit for all of us involved in TPM:
"Still At It"
IFDA has formed a committee to look into "the need for complete and accurate information in data exchange between trading partners."
Their intentions are right on the money. It's inexcusable that we're still talking about dealing with inaccurate or missing bar codes, inconsistent product descriptions, poor price maintenance practices and the like as if they were insurmountable challenges. In the IFDA press release, distributors report that "85-90% of inbound loads currently have errors."
The press release also says that change "must be industry-driven, not company-driven..."
I'm not so sure about that one.
As badly as we need this type of initiative, I'm not convinced that the "industry-driven" approach will be effective. As we've written before, "no one makes bonus for improving the state of the industry." Further, few people make bonus for improving the lot of their trading partners. And too often, the people who work on these committees represent the largest, most progressive companies while the resistance often comes from less-sophisticated companies (both manufacturers and distributors) who cling to outdated practices.
As much as I hate to egg on the big distributors to wield their power, that is probably what it will take to ultimately get the entire industry in line with modern trading practices. When the right customers decide to mandate change or stop buying from those who don't comply, the foot-dragging usually stops.
Until then, I wish this committee success in pulling foodservice forward in our use of technology.
The press release can be seen at: IFDA - GS1 Committee
(If you would like to subscribe to Dave’s newsletter, just drop him an email with your contact information at dave@franklin-foodservice.com)
Before I leave this subject, let me add my two cents. I couldn’t agree more with Dave...for the most part. From a TPM perspective, the TPM FORUM addressed the need for supply chain partner collaboration at our MASTERS FORUM conference in February thru our “Benefits of Industry Collaboration” panel with IFMA, IFDA, and FSMA representatives in a discussion of the barriers and opportunities for to this concept. (Download a copy of the support slides for this session at the “TPM materials” section of the Foodservice University home page.) The ongoing issue has been --- and still is --- clean data and data interoperability between trading partners. UCC and now GS1 have made huge strides in retail, but FS has lagged behind --- by decades. The difference? The demand at the “end user” level of the supply chain (grocery chains, Wal-Mart, etc) for UNIVERSALLY synchronized data, and technology (UPC scan technology and reporting agencies to aggregate it). Until we have INDUSTRY demand for a UNIVERSAL PRODUCT CODE system (and not a “SYSCO UPC, a UNIPRO UPC, and a MFR UPC) we will continue to face challenges of communication. Unfortunately, IFDA alone may not be able to push this forward…they need the unbiased commitment from the MFR community as well. Their partner in this effort, IFMA, has largely been impotent in engaging an industry dialog and action on these issues (remember EFR from over a decade ago?), so it is important that we all take the initiative to get involved. Contact Steve at IFDA and pledge your support to what he is trying to accomplish. INTENT alone won’t solve the issue, but a requirement that that everyone ADOPT the same universal code standard. A tough and expensive decision for some…but one that must be made. Current TPM initiatives and SarBox requirements will go a long way toward demanding the appropriate collaboration. Where does YOUR COMPANY stand in this challenge?