STORES Magazine - November 2008 - (Page L8)

COVER STORY came from, where it is now be on products in transit withand do it in 90 minutes,” in the United States, Stewart Theno says. says. In 2007, the International “Any company that uses UPC Organization for Standards codes on its products has the The Produce Tracing Initiative (ISO) introduced the ISO ability to do the first two phasis led by a 50-person steering 22005 standard for tracees of the project quickly,” says committee of marketers, growers, shippers, packers, ability in the feed and food Gary Fleming, vice president of foodservice operators and retailers. supply chains that was deindustry technology and stansigned to increase visibility throughout the supply chain. dards for PMA. “The biggest challenge is the last mileAmong its components are the abilities to: stone: This is a matter of reading every inbound case, re• Trace the flow of materials including, food, ingredients gardless of where you are in the supply chain. and packaging “There are some things we can do to facilitate this so • Identify necessary documentation and tracking for each companies don’t have to scan every little case,” Fleming stage of production says. “For instance, they can scan one bar code on the pallet and it will automatically reveal all the data for every • Ensure adequate coordination among different segments of the industry case on that pallet.” • Require that each party be informed of at least its direct Outbound shipments are a different story. “The majorisuppliers and clients. ty of times when a company receives a pallet, they are likely to change the configuration for outbound shipping,” Farm-to-shelf traceability Fleming says, “but you still have to capture the information. This is probably our biggest challenge. But this phase he job is far from over, however, and won’t be comwon’t have to be completed until sometime in 2012. It will plete until the entire industry adopts standardized give technologies an opportunity to mature.” electronic traceability, according to many obAnother challenge may be a company’s ability to capture servers. Spearheading this effort is the Produce Marketing and store manufacturers’ information. “The importance of Association, which is set to launch the Produce Tracing Inibuilding databases to store a 14-digit GTIN number and a tiative, an industry-wide, multi-stage program tasked with lot number can’t be understated,” Fleming says. “Not only developing a comprehensive farm-to-shelf electronic traceare you changing the database structure, but you are ability system by 2012. This global initiative is led by a 50changing all the programs that access that database. It’s person steering committee of marketers, growers, shippers, more involved than people think.” packers, foodservice operators and retailers. The good news, he says, is the transition won’t require Since the adoption of the Bioterrorism Act of 2002, the companies to purchase new systems, but merely update produce industry “has been required to trace products at their warehouse management systems. least one step forward and one step back” and to produce Pat Walsh, vice president, industry and trade developdocumentation within 24 hours, says PMA spokeswoman ment for the Food Marketing Institute, believes that a stanJulia Stewart. Following the 2006 outbreak traced to leafy greens, dardized traceability system must be adopted because of however, industry leadership came to the realization that it the complexity of dealing with fresh foods like produce. needs to trace produce faster. That’s when it joined with the “Dry grocery is all labeled with bar codes, but fresh foods Canadian Produce Marketing Association and the United like produce rely on PLU [price look-up] numbers that Fresh Produce Association in developing the PTI. “The only identify a category, not manufacturers,” he says. purpose is to develop a solution and timeline for imple“There needs to be bridge building around standards that mentation to get the entire produce supply chain on elecwill deliver a solution for the industry.” tronic traceability,” Stewart says. Tom Kozinski, vice president of product strategy for This includes a two-phase labeling process. The first is for Waukesha, Wis.-based RedPrairie, is confident that GTIN packers to put a human readable label on each carton that labeling is the right answer. “It’s not a unique approach in utilizes a Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN), a other industries — just fresh produce,” he says. “That’s 14-digit number developed by GS1 that carries all the data great news because nothing could be worse than having another 10 sets of standards to deal with from a software necessary to identify products sold, delivered and warehoused through retail and commercial distribution chanstandpoint.” nels. The plan calls for the information to eventually be moved Len Lewis is a veteran retail industry journalist and comto a bar code and, possibly, to RFID tags. The hope is that mentator and the editorial director of Lewis Communiit will become a global program, but the initial focus will cations. T L8 STORES / NOVEMBER 2008 WWW.LPINFORMATION.COM http://WWW.LPINFORMATION.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of STORES Magazine - November 2008

STORES Magazine - November 2008 Contents Executive Editor's Page President's Page Every Cup Counts What Shoppers Think Less Park Time, More Shop Time 10 Things You May Have Missed Numbers Worth Counting Full Price/Markdown Retail People Retail Held Captive First Look Concept2Watch Marketing Technology Custom Software PCI Compliance Data Security Arts Update Newsbeat LP Issues: Q&A Cover Story Surveillance Systems Online Fraud Industry Perspective LOEB Retail Letter Point of View NRF News Retail Crossword Retail Industry Calendar Last Laugh

STORES Magazine - November 2008

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