Evolution of Product Identification Standards:From UPC to GTIN to EPC to RFID
Richard RandallBusiness Advisor
July 13, 2004
Presented to:
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 2
Agenda
Update on QRS
Product Identification Standards– History of the Barcode and UPC
– Current utilization (UPC and EAN)
– Clarification on “Sunrise 2005” and GTIN
– Future – Electronic Product Code (EPC) and RFID
Update on UCCnet– Evolving to the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN)
– Item Data vs. Instance Data
– EPCglobal
Questions
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 3
Who is QRS?
Founded in 1988, only QRS gives retailers and marketers/manufacturers the ability to connect, transact, collaborate and differentiate
Full suite of collaborative commerce solutions for retail industry– Global data synchronization– Industry and retail mandate compliance– Transaction outsourcing – Global trade management– Market intelligence
More than 10,000 retail industry customers rely on QRS to improve supply chain performance and brand equity
“With QRS we have reduced order errors and cycle times, which translates to reduced costs and better service for our customers.” — Yusef Akyuz, CIO
The Stride Rite Corporation
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 4
What’s new with QRS?
Since we last met…
Introduced two new Product Information Management (PIM) software solutions– QRS IMPACT™
– QRS QuickSync™
June 17th announcement
QRS to be acquired by JDA
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 5
History of the Barcode and the UPC
1932 Harvard graduate student, Wallace Flint’s “punch card” project.
1948 Bernard Silver & Norman Woodland, graduate students at Drexel Institute of Technology respond to a local food chain store’s request for a method to automatically read product information at store checkout.
1949 Silver and Woodland filed a patent application for the “Classifying Apparatus and Method” for “article classification…through the medium of identifying patterns,” which was issued in 1952.
1966 Barcode first used commercially by Kroger based on a concentric ring pattern, but soon realized that there would have to be industry standards.
1969 The NAFC contracted for the development of UGPIC.
1973 The IBM proposal for the UPC, developed by George Laurer, was adopted by the NAFC.
1974 The first UPC “scanned” was a pack Wrigley’s Gum at Marsh’s supermarket in Troy, Ohio.
>70’s Work with competing formats such as magnetic strip and OCR.
1981 Barcode adoption cemented by DOD requirement for marking all products sold to the US military.
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 6
Components of a UPC
Number System
CharacterManufacturer
Number Unique Item Reference Numberto Color/Size Level
5-2 digits
Mod-10Checkdigit
Company Prefix (Block ID)6-9 digits
Eventually evolved to the EAN-13, where first 3 digits are the Country Code. (North America is 000-099.)
And now, the GTIN-14 where first digit is a “Pack Indicator.”
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 7
Pre-packUPC-12: 123456 00721 5GTIN-14: 00 123456 00721 5
GTIN-14 Usage
The first digit of a GTIN-14 is a level of packing indicator
A higher level pack of a single UPC can be assigned a “Case GTIN:”
– Where the root of the Case GTIN is the lower level UPC
– Where the first digit of the Case GTIN is not “0” or “9”*
– And the checkdigit has been re-calculated appropriately
A case or higher pack level may be assigned a new UPC (Pre-Pack UPC), or if case is homogeneous (only 1 UPC in the case), then a “Case GTIN” (where the first digit is not “0” or “9”) can be assigned to the case
* “9” is reserved for variable weight/measure items
Widget X
Case of 12 Widget X’s
GTIN-14: 30 123456 00001 9
UPC-12: 123456 00001 8GTIN-14: 00 123456 00001 8
Pallet of 4 cases of Widget X
or CaseGTIN-14: 10 123456 00001 5
Note: If a GTIN-14 begins with a zero, the
number is actually one of the other, shorter GTIN data structures.
The actual GTIN type may be determined by the number of leading zeros on a GTIN-14.
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 8
Clarification on “Sunrise 2005” & GTIN
Technically, the UCC’s Sunrise 2005 states that all North American retailers should be able to handle the EAN by January 1, 2005
However, while making changes to systems and hardware, should go all the way to 14-digits for the GTIN
Technically, no “sunrise date” for supporting the GTIN-14 has been issued
Note: The consumer level unit will always be marked with the UPC or EAN symbology. Although the number may be stored in a database or transmitted in EDI in a 14-digit GTIN format, the consumer unit will always be marked with the applicable UPC or EAN format. In general, POS hardware and software will not need to be modified to support the GTIN-14 format.
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 9
The GTIN “Family”
Global Trade Item Numbers include:
Existing
– UPC (UCC-12)
– EAN (EAN/UCC-13)
– EAN/UCC-8
– SCC-14 (ITF-14)
New (2005 Sunrise)
– GTIN-14 (EAN/UCC-14)
14-digit format for database storage:
00123456789012
01234567890123
00000012345678
12345678901234
12345678901234
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“Item” Data vs. “Instance” Data
An “item” is represented by a UPC/EAN/GTIN
An individual copy of an item, is an “instance” of that item
To identify individual “instances” of an item, they need to be serialized – each instance gets assigned its own serial number
Necessary for RFID to work – if RFID only had the UPC imbedded, how could the RFID receiver identify whether there were 1,000 instances of an item, or whether it just heard the same one item 1,000 times?
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 11
RFID isn’t new
Over 60 years old – used by the British in WWII to identify their aircraft
More recently, has been used to track:– Soldiers in war zones– Patients in hospitals– Airfreight parcels– Toll roads & bridges (FasTrack San Francisco, E-ZPass New York, etc.)
Benefit of RFID over UPC/Barcode RFID is radio versus UPC/Barcode which is optical – can
process items in bulk rather than scanning each individually
Then why hasn’t it caught on? Cost Volume of data Competing standards
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 12
Industry Direction: GTINEPCRFID
GTIN – Global Trade Item Number
Format supports EAN-8, UPC-12, EAN-13 and Case-GTIN-14. Used to identify an item.
EPC – Electronic Product Code
Is a GTIN with a serial number (or SGTIN) plus some additional data attributes. Used to identify an “instance” of an item.
RFID – Radio Frequency Identification
A radio transmitter chip attached to items for identification purposes. Chip is programmed with the EPC.
Format of a 96-Bit EPC/RFID:
Header8 bit
FilterValue
3 bit
Partition3 bit
EPC Manager #(UPC Block/Co Prefix)
20-40 bits
Object Class(Item Reference)
24-4 bits
Serial #38 bit
GTIN
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 13
How “move” item data?... Historically
QRSQRSCatalogueCatalogue
Vendors
Retailers
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 14
How “move” item data?... UCCnet
QRSQRSCatalogueCatalogue
Vendors
Retailers
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
UCCnetUCCnet
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
SourceDatapools
GlobalRegistry
RecipientDatapools
Physically load 35-160 attributes per item
Current UCCnet
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 15
How “move” item data?... UCCnet
QRSQRSCatalogueCatalogue
Vendors
Retailers
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
UCCnetUCCnet
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
SourceDatapools
GlobalRegistry
RecipientDatapools
Current UCCnet New UCCnet (8/04)
QRSQRSCatalogueCatalogue
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogue
UCCUCCGDSNGDSN
OtherOtherCatalogueCatalogueUCCnetUCCnet
Physically load 35-160 attributes per item
Only register 8 reference attributes
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 16
How move “instance” data?
First, have to know item data
Then, could move item data in Ship Notice (ASN)
Or, could wait until the actual individual items are received and simply “read/hear” them then (but could not query on their status until received)
Or, have a “global router” to direct you to individual “instance” databases
The last alternative is what is being promoted by the UCC, and their affiliate EPCglobal
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 17
How move “instance” data?... EPCglobal
LocalLocalRouterRouter
LocalLocalRouterRouter
EPCEPCglobalglobal
LocalLocalRouterRouter
LocalLocalRouterRouter
A completely separate network from the UCCnet/Global Data Synchronization Network, which is for “item” data.
The UCC’s EPCglobal network is for finding databases that have information on specific “instances” of an item.
Item data includes things such as:
• Product/Model #• GTIN• Size• Color• Flavor
Instance data includes things such as:
• Date of manufacture• Lot• Expiration date• Country of origin• Expiration date• Highest temperature
reached• How long in a
particular warehouse
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 18
Why do we need an “instance” data network?
We don’t
Unless we want…– Refrigerators that tell you when you have a carton of milk about to expire
– You want a washing machine to set the cycle and temperature automatically based on the contents
– You want to know if an individual item has a safety recall
Net is, it is a necessary foundation for future applications
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 19
So, where are we with RFID?
Wal-Mart top 100 vendor piloting on cases/pallets– Driving standards and solutions
– Forrester estimates at a cost of $9M per vendor per year
Standards will evolve and chip prices will come down
Privacy issues to be resolved
What is “real” business benefit?
Many years off before RFID at product level for average consumer goods – will probably be earlier adoption in high ticket goods, that are already serialized, such as cars, appliances, consumer electronics, etc.
Have to effectively manage item data before moving to instance data and RFID
© Richard Randall, QRS Corporation, 2004 // 800.872.8255 // www.qrs.com 20
Q & A
For more information – Web: www.qrs.com
Phone: 800.UPC.TALK (800.872.8255)
E-mail: Sales [email protected]
Support [email protected]
Careers [email protected]
Alliances [email protected]
Richard Randall, QRS Business Advisor:
510-215-3765 [email protected]
Thank you!