Interoperable traceability using GS1 standards

Trading partners, consumers and authorities are increasingly demanding transparency into the origin and responsibility of products. GS1 standards effectively support this traceability by providing interoperable international solutions for tracking products and related events throughout their entire lifecycle.

Traceability is the ability to follow a product from its origin to its current state. It is a process that allows us to find out, for example, where the product came from, how it was changed and moved, and who handled it. However, traceability does not mean that all information about the product is publicly available. Instead, the information is shared only with those who have a legitimate need to know.

Information transparency is essentially related to traceability. It ensures that information is available and understandable to all relevant parties.

GS1’s solution for enabling interoperable traceability in the supply chain is based on global and open standards that are accessible to everyone, providing transparency of information across the supply chain. Data is stored and transferred digitally in an interoperable manner throughout the supply chain, which also enables the use of automation in processes.

Where self-monitoring ensures quality and safety within an individual company, interoperable traceability provides a holistic view of the supply chain. It ensures efficiency, transparency and compliance throughout the chain.

Improved trust

Supply chain actors can view the information they need and track product flows and processes with consistent, comparable data. This transparency increases trust both between business partners and with consumers.

Cost savings and increased operational efficiency

The need for different technical solutions and customized systems is reduced. Errors and duplication in data storage and transmission are also reduced. This makes supply chain management more efficient and even leads to significant cost savings.

More effective quality control and risk management

Product quality control becomes more effective when problems, such as defective raw materials, incorrect transport conditions or manufacturing errors, can be quickly identified and targeted to specific stages or operators. This improves risk management throughout the chain and reduces financial losses and damages.

Easier global trade

Trading across borders becomes easier, challenges related to customs and regulatory requirements are reduced, and the global smoothness of the supply chain improves when data is in a language that everyone understands.

GS1 standards are needed when “one forward, one back” is no longer enough

Several legislative requirements of the EU’s green transition and data strategy require more accurate data and its more networked sharing. Consumers also want reliable information about products, especially their origins. The traditional legal requirement that a company must be able to report product information only to its own trading partners is no longer enough today.

Interoperable, standards-based traceability brings transparency, security, efficiency and better risk management to supply chains. It improves cooperation and information exchange between actors, which enables more reliable and efficient supply chain management. Standards also facilitate compliance with regulatory requirements and increase consumer trust in products, which is critical especially in global and complex trade.

Building blocks for interoperable traceability

GS1 Global Traceability Standard brings together GS1 traceability standards to form a global framework that ensures interoperability and scalability of different traceability systems. In addition to GS1 standards for individualisation and identification, it consists of standards for sharing information, that support data traceability.

GS1 identification standards provide the basis for information traceability. They define unique identifiers for supply chain elements such as products, locations and parties, making them uniformly identifiable, shareable and traceable across all markets. The identifiers are associated with the various events and processes in the supply chain.

With GS1 capturing standards such as barcodes and EPC/RFID tags, an item that has been uniquely identified is connected to its digital world. This means that information can be easily associated with the item at different stages of the supply chain.

GS1 sharing standards such as the transaction data standard EPCIS and the product data standard GDSN provide a uniform structure and format for the exchange of information between different actors in the supply chain. They allow business partners to easily and efficiently exchange, for example, master data on product information, transaction data on orders or transaction data from different stages of a product in the value chain.