GS1 Standards Spring Event 6 - 10 Oct 2014 – Rome, Italy

Building Standards to Deliver Business Value

Overview of the GPC Standard and Horticultural Updates Wednesday, 08-October Ben Ensink, GS1 Netherlands Mike Mowad, GS1

GPC Overview

Mike Mowad, GS1

What is GPC?

• Gives buyers and sellers a common language for grouping (or categorising) products in the same way, everywhere in the world • Rules-based, four-tier classification system for grouping products: Segment , Family , Class , and Brick (with attributes and attribute values ). • Improves the GDSN data accuracy and integrity, speeds up the supply chain's ability to react to consumer needs, and contributes to breaking down language barriers. 3

Example

GPC Foundation and Hierarchy

Bricks

Milk and Milk Substitutes (Perishable)

Brick Attributes If Animal Level of Fat Claim Organic Claim Probiotic Claim Refrigeration Claim Brick Attribute Values

Animal Milk Non Animal Milk Unidentified Full Fat Low Fat Non Fat Unidentified No Yes Unidentified No Yes Unidentified Can be Refrigerated Must be Refrigerated Unidentified 4

Why GPC?

GTIN

ITEM

Reference Code

WHICH product is it?

00910023712823 GPC

Product

CLASSIFICATION

Code

WHAT product is it? 10005788

A codified key - provides a unique, international and non ambiguous way to identify an item Grouping GTINs into the same category (GPC bricks) following common rules in a specific goal Each GTIN is electronically linked to a unique GPC brick code The GPC brick code is a mandatory data in GDSN 5

13,000,000

GPC adoption in GDSN GPC adoption in GDSN

(Aug-2013) Since 2007, GPC adoption has grown in coverage and in implementation (in parallel with the use of GTINs) in GDS

GPC Brick Codes passed through GDSN

11,000,000 9,000,000 7,000,000 5,000,000 3,000,000 1,000,000 GPC brick code 1 6

GPC Translations

GPC is officially published in Oxford English and is currently translated to 13 other languages • Arabic • Chinese • Dutch • Finnish • French • German • Hungarian • Italian • Japanese • Portuguese • Russian • Serbian • Swedish 7

GPC Releases

• • GPC uses a “Consolidated Release” strategy to publish twice per year, (every June & December) Each GPC release is implemented into GDSN 6 months after publication Jun 2012

GPC Jun-2012 Publication

Dec 2012

Deployed into the GDSN GPC Dec-2012 Publication

Jun 2013

Deployed into the GDSN GPC Jun-2013 Publication

Dec 2013

Deployed into the GDSN GPC Dec-2013 Publication

Jun 2014

Deployed into the GDSN

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GPC Future Work Streams:

Harmonisation of Tariff Codes (HTC)

HTC typically used to determine the cost of goods that cross international borders - can also be used for traceability Opportunity for GPC to be leveraged to provide more granularity by providing contextual product information - useful for Government agencies and Customs

MOU Organisation for Economic Co-operation

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Where Can I find the GPC Standards?

1. Click here!

2. Click here!

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Published Formats

Published in 2 formats: 1. Browser-Based 2. Schema (Excel & XML) 11

GPC Expansion into Horticultural

Ben Ensink, GS1 Netherlands

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The Horticulture Project

•

3 years of development

•

Most work done by local standards body

(Floricode



strategic partner GS1.NL) •

Quick on decision to use

Taxonomy

•

Quick on decision to

leave out cultivars

(23.000 different cultivars in Holland)

Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) 17

What did we experience?

•

Product specialists tend to

over

-classify

•

Standards experts tend to

under

•

Horticulture is a

“Special”

sector: -classify

•

10’s of thousands different products

•

Nature is diverse on it’s own

•

Breeding by humans adds > 1000 cultivars each year

•

Currently registered: 2000 Genus & 4000 Species 18

Problems encountered (1)

• • •

Application of “

same product

” – cut flower, plant, cut green (decoration)

Colour

– – – nature has so many nuances of colours!

which colour system best suits the purpose?

conversion tables RHS RGB Pantone

GPC colours Taxonomy

versus common names and synonyms

+ -/-



=

Genus & Species = Worldwide = Latin Latin not familiar One as description, other as definition common names can be translated 19

Problems encountered (2)

• •

Distinction between potted & garden plants?

– – – In- / Out-door depends on geographical position In stead use

brick attributes

(in-, out-door, both) Split family “live plants” in 2 because >100 genus 

GPC limit

•

Too many different genus-species combinations – Direct efforts to ‘

main stream

’ products (world-turnover > 0,1 %) and create “others” for rest – Under populate enough to allow future expansions Only develop new families when business needs it

Bulbs,Seeds,Trees



Later

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Interested parties

•

AFIFnet

(Assoc. Flower Import Florida) •

US Dep. of Agriculture

(fytosanitary import check) •

EU-Brussels & COPA/Cogeca

(customs & statistics / alternative for GN codes Nomenclature) •

Union Fleurs

(Association Floricultural Wholesale Org’s) •

Lei & Wageningen University

(for Market Intelligence) •

Dutch Floricultural sector

(Auction, Trade, Retail, Floricode, Fair trade label “Max Havelaar” ) •

Brazilian Government

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Learnings

• We encountered

technical limits

in numbering of GPC class codes and had to split up “Live Plants” into 2 classes • Advice  In the future, look to expand the limits of the numbering assignment (if more sectors require it ) • Technical limits required substantial rework later in the process • Advice  Large GPC expansions needs to have a “technical limits” review early in the process • Ensure that Global stakeholders are involved from the beginning

Large GPC expansion projects should always have a follow-up learnings review as part of the process

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Contact Details

Mike Mowad

Director, Global Product Classification & Standards, GS1 T +1 (609) 557-4568 E [email protected]

Ben Ensink

Product Specialist, GS1 Netherlands T +31 (0) 20 511 38 20| E [email protected]