Consumer Goods Compliance

Consumer Goods Manufacturers have adopted the use of bar codes since the early 1980’s when Wrigley’s put the first UPC bar code on a pack of gum. Today bar codes are used in a myriad of applications from manufacturing to check out counters.

As the technology around bar coding advanced and the use of the technology expanded a huge number of proprietary symbologies and data formats developed making it a confusing technology. In an effort to eliminate confusion consumer goods manufacturers joined together to help form an international organization that would create and enforce bar coding compliance standards in the industry.

As bar coding technology became widely accepted more companies mandated its use. Bar codes no longer were optional if one wanted to do business in the modern world. Smaller manufacturers found difficulty in funding the purchase and implementation of bar code technology in its infancy. So they looked to find ways in which they could use the technology not only for compliance but to improve their own internal business processes in an effort to save enough money to pay for its costs. Bar coding began to be used to mark items for inventory tracking in storage facilities, work in process, and more. Today bar codes are a fact of life and are used in almost every walk of life to identify all goods that may be bought or sold in the world.

In more recent years Consumer Goods Manufacturers helped fund and form the Auto ID Center at MIT. This center was instrumental in the development of the Electronic Product Code (EPC) and exploration of the commercial viable use of RFID technology. The Class 1 Gen 2 EPCglobal specification adopted in January 2005 was ratified as ISO 18000-6c by the ISO committee making it a global specification. While this organization explored the use of RFID technology the US DoD and other commercial entities began to realize the potential benefits of using it to augment visibility and efficiency in their own supply chains. As a result membership grew.

One of the biggest retailers in the industry (Wal-Mart) joined in the efforts and determined that they could use the technology so (to) streamline their own supply chain. In conjunction with their contributions and involvement in EPCglobal, Inc. they devised and implemented the first RFID compliance mandate for the consumer goods industry. This mandate officially started on January 1, 2005 for its first 137 top suppliers and volunteers.

The promise of increase visibility and efficiency in the supply chain has prompted other retailers to begin implementing their own RFID compliance mandates. Commercial entities such as Sam’s Club, Target, Best Buy, and Albertson’s have already introduced their plans. Other entities considering similar mandates include Home Depot, the US FDA and the US Customs Service.

Even today companies have yet to realize the full potential of using bar code/RFID technology in their daily operations.

Are you prepared to meet compliance mandates or leverage the use of bar code/RFID technology today or in the near future?