Working closely with GS1 Argentina, Aguas Misioneras implemented GS1 standards to uniquely identify its water products, locations (e.g., wells and plants) and logistics units so that it could track and trace products throughout its supply chain—from well to supermarket.

Aguas Misioneras’ mission is to not only package and distribute quality drinking water for its consumers, but also preserve water as a natural resource. Founded in 2009, the company has two industrial plants in San Javier and Santa Maria. Both are remotely located, far from human activities that might pollute the water, and comply with DRASTIC and GOD methodologies for assessing groundwater vulnerability. Neither plants capture water from the Guarani Aquifer System and both follow the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP).

In today’s healthcare industry, it is essential for companies to remain competitive.

With this in mind, Aché Laboratories considers innovation to be an important part of its growth strategy— one that is consistently executed.

Aché’s decision to implement the drug traceability project at its laboratory in 2018 was based on Brazilian regulatory requirements and the growing global demand from consumer markets. And considering the opportunity to innovate, Aché accepted this challenge.

Why was implementing traceability a challenge?

First, there had not been a similar drug traceability regulation in Brazil before, so benchmarking results were not available to help the company better understand the magnitude of the implementation. Rather, Aché had to start from “zero”—creating internal processes, developing production-line coding equipment, working to involve and integrate several departments of the company, training the team and much more.

Although it may seem that Unique Device Identification (UDI) only means the addition of a barcode on a label and the entry of certain information into the UDI local database, LINET found the implementation of UDI to be a very complex task requiring money, equipment, people and time.

The main objective of UDI implementation must be a process that is sufficiently robust and ensures that each medical device is clearly identified, and that correct information will be entered at the correct time into a relevant UDI database. This process must be integrated into the manufacturer’s quality management system.

Ideally, product master data should flow freely and efficiently from manufacturers to healthcare providers.

The Global Data Synchronisation Network™ (GDSN®) with its one-to-many model makes it possible for hospitals to efficiently receive product data. In an effort to improve the healthcare supply chain data exchange, 1WorldSync has developed a unique solution—the 1WorldSync Playlist—to leverage the GDSN to improve efficiencies and enable scalability. To ensure proof of concept, a pilot program was undertaken with a major healthcare provider and medical product manufacturers.

The Healthcare System in Chile is made up of a public system (FONASA), a private system (ISAPRES) and other specialised ones (armed forces and foundations).

The good level of public health they have achieved (better than other countries with similar socioeconomic development) is reflected in aspects such as the increase in life expectancy at birth, the reduction of highly avoidable health events such as maternal and infant mortality, and treating infectious diseases that can be controlled with vaccines and measures of sanitation and hygiene.

When a trading partner required that radio frequency identification (RFID) tags be placed on a global apparel manufacturer’s bras, the company stepped up to the challenge, taking decisive actions to make EPC-enabled RFID tagging part of the retailer’s order fulfilment process.

Using GS1 Standards, an EPC RFID tag is attached to each garment and encoded with a Serialized Global Trade Item Number® (SGTIN®) that uniquely identifies the item and its attributes.

The SGTIN is linked to the garment’s barcode that will be scanned at the retail register, giving the manufacturer greater visibility of items throughout its supply chain.

Results

• To date there have been more than 30,000 product GTINs processed with over 600 manufacturers and suppliers and 13 data recipients from retail industry.
• For all products, 8 images are available for marketing and planograms usage, weight and dimensions of consumer units and all label data captured, verified in a robust procedure and validated by Brand owners before distribution

Situation

The EU Food Information Regulation (1169/2011) requires a significant amount of food information, normally found on a physical product label, to be available to the online consumer prior to purchase of the pre-packed food via a web shop, mobile app or other distance sale method.

This mandatory label information must be available on or through a website or via another electronic channel. If the information is not available, the pre-packed food cannot legally be sold online.

In addition to label information, another critical component to online commerce is product image. Many activities, from online selling to printed or online marketing, demand high resolution and good quality images. Local markets want a common and efficient way to share images without cost duplication or poor results.

Approach

In response to market demand and to help companies comply with increasing regulation, GS1 Italy worked with Brandbank to launch the Immagino service. Immagino is a robust and efficient way to capture and share high quality label data and to create, manage and distribute product images for printed or online use.

Based on GS1 standards and guidelines, from GTIN identification and verification to measurements and images management, label data is made available to suppliers for completion – creating complete consumer friendly product information available in all channels.

All data are carefully verified and validated by brand owners throughout the process. This high quality data can then be used to deliver trusted product information to retail recipients, and aid compliance with EU 1169 requirements.

This Data Pool service is used by members to provide vital product data to UK foodservice providers and customers around the world that are connected to the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN).

Results

• 90%+ data quality scores for members publishing to UK foodservice operators.
• Already over 2,000 items checked by the food label data quality service.
• 300+ suppliers involved in the data quality program.

Situation

Consumers’ desire for increased information about the food they eat, in addition to new regulations like the Food Information Regulation (1169/2011), demand an unprecedented level of quality product data and specific label information be available to the consumer in stores, online, or in restaurants and cafes.

This means it is more important than ever that the UK foodservice industry be able to deliver the right product with the right information in the right place at the right time—and at the right cost.

GS1 UK is supporting the foodservice & convenience sector’s ever-increasing need for trusted product information through the GS1 UK Foodservice Directors’ Group (FSDG). The group drives industry change by getting everyone—suppliers, distributors and operators—to speak the same language, using GS1 standards.

Approach

Working closely with partners, 1WorldSync and Clavis, GS1 UK has developed and extended the capability of the TrueSource Data Pool service to incorporate data quality validations that ensure conformance with UK industry and the Food Information Regulation (1169/ 2011) requirements.

In addition, GS1 UK is working closely with members to check product data for suspect information that goes beyond the standard validations in today’s business processes. Data quality monitoring on trends and additional member training when necessary allows companies to comply with regulations and provide improved product information that consumers can trust.

Feile Foods, a fully licensed Irish meat processor in Portlaoise, Ireland, took a proactive approach by investing in technology and the GS1 System.

Results

Feile achieved success through the ability to record batch numbers that can be matched with customers through loyalty card schemes, enabling recall. In addition, they are in a position to meet regulatory responsibilities through a data rich track-and-trace system.

The experience of the Feile Foods implementation will lead to a more rigorous and visible supply chain. It will also enable the retail industry to improve product traceability, management of short-shelf-life products and effectively authenticate products passing through the point of sale.

Situation

The Pork Dioxin contamination crisis led to the total recall of Irish pork products, cost the sector €1 billion and highlighted how farm-to-fork traceability was a broken chain that needed to be fixed.

Feile Foods implemented GS1 barcodes and product identification to improve the authenticity and traceability of its fresh meat products.

As a substantial part of the business involves producing products sold in retail outlets, Feile saw the benefit in becoming an early adopter of GS1 DataBar and GS1 standards.

Approach

Feile Foods was looking to automate as much of its supply chain as possible and identified barcode scanning solutions as a way to reduce errors.

GS1 DataBar delivers enhanced product identification at retail point of sale. The ability to store additional information such as lot number and expiry dates can support product authentication, traceability and product recalls.

In terms of size and potential growth, Hong Kong, China and greater China are key markets for the Malaysian durian export.

The durian export pilot demonstrated that cross-border traceability is possible when using GS1 standards supported by the EPCIS visibility platform. Outcomes from the pilot highlighted a significant improvement in overall supply chain performance and integrity. Time spent on tracking consignments’ positions in the supply chain was reduced by an impressive 98 percent.

Results

Time spent on tracking consignments has been reduced by 98 percent, and errors due to manual data entry have been eliminated.

Information about each shipment is now available in real time, and counterfeit products can be easily detected.

Supply chain visibility improved from 40% to 100%.

Situation

Authorities faced new challenges of facilitating yet controlling increased trade of durian. To effectively protect and monitor the market or, if needed, prohibit products from being distributed, authorities needed to put a system in place that enabled manufacturers, traders and end users to seamlessly communicate with governments. Furthermore, exporters needed end-to-end traceability and access to complete information about each durian shipment, including its real-time location and temperature. And as the Chinese market is particularly vulnerable to counterfeiting, there was a need to combat and reduce the risk of counterfeits for these premium products.

Approach

GS1 identifiers were implemented to uniquely identify each piece of the durian fruit as well as logistics units and consignments transporting them from Malaysia to China. Mi-Trace, based on EPCIS, provided access to information for farm-to-consumer traceability. Stakeholders were from Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and greater China. Malaysian stakeholders included representatives from the Malaysia Durian Exporter Association, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the Department of Agriculture, GS1 Malaysia and the Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers.