Joint data model

The Finnish grocery trade and the food industry are committed to the joint development of the entire industry in their vision of the world's most consumer-oriented food value chain 2025.

ETL (Finnish Food and Drink Industries' Federation) and PTY (Finnish Grocery Trade Association) together with their member companies committed in October 2020 to the joint development of the entire industry with the vision of the world's most consumer-oriented food value chain 2025. The goal of the joint data model program aiming at consumer-oriented food value is to develop the utilization of GS1 standards even more widely. This can be used to build a better customer experience and cost efficiency throughout the value chain.

Our journey towards the world's most consumer-oriented food value chain began with defining a common data model. As a result of the first phase, common concepts between the different parties of the value chain, a description of the information model and a road map proposal for the years 2021–2025 were created. In the same context, the development of the consumer-producer dialogue as well as balance management and loss reduction were selected as the most central development themes.

Development of the consumer–producer dialogue

In the consumer-producer dialogue, the provision of product-related responsibility information and extended diet and nutrition information to consumers was raised as key development targets. In this way, consumers can make comparisons between different products and product groups, find products suitable for their diet more easily, especially in the digital channel, and completely new types of services for consumers can be built on top of a reliable data base.

Projects to promote a common information model

Information model for nutrient content data
The project defined a detailed information model for transmitting extended allergen and dietary information from the supplier further along the value chain, so that the consumer can more easily find the products suitable for their diet regardless of channel.
Data model of responsibility information
The goal is to define a detailed information model for transmitting responsibility information, firstly the carbon footprint, from raw material and material production forward in the value chain, so that the consumer can make comparisons between different products and product groups. The project is implemented in connection with the Food from Finland project.

Balance management and loss reduction

Utilization of manufacturing batch data offers opportunities for trade groups and stores for batch and day-level balance management and streamlining of inventory practices, which has an impact on reducing wastage in the entire value chain. In the longer term, the utilization of batch data also creates opportunities for making recalls more efficient and for dynamic product pricing.

Unifying and systematizing the format of the demand forecast produced by the trade groups makes the processing of the forecast more effective by suppliers and creates conditions for reducing loss. The consumer benefits from this as a whole in terms of better availability of the products.

Projects to promote a common information model

Definition of batch data utilization
In the project, a more precise information model was defined for the branding of batch data using smarter barcodes and for information transmission in the value chain. It also enables the development of a broader consumer dialogue in the future.
Defining the format of the demand forecast
In the project, a common information model was created for the demand forecast provided by the store, which enables the automation of forecast processing by suppliers.