TEMPLE, Texas -- Convenience-store distributor McLane Co. is making a pitch to standardize supply-chain tracking in conjunction with a not-for-profit group dedicated to designing and implementing such standards.
“In partnership with McLane Foodservice and other industry leaders, GS1 is developing industry standards that can help supply chains run more efficiently and help improve food safety at the same time,” McLane said in a report issued this week titled Expanded Barcode Scanning. “If the entire supply chain played by the same rules, if all spoke the same tracking language, if accountability from one end to the other was both trusted and expected, then food safety and efficiency would help limit compromise.”
GS1 believes that the key to success lies in ensuring data integrity, as well as leveraging standardized item identifiers, according to the report. Keeping in mind these two elements, the organization collaborated with McLane and other industry leaders to test a solution that involves applying expanded barcodes to cases and scanning them at critical tracking points—such as collecting ingredients, packaging products, shipping and receiving.
"Through commitment and cooperation from all players, information to uniquely identify each product can be captured quickly and accurately along the entire supply chain," McLane said. "At that point, everyone will be speaking the same language, and reliable data can be used to locate specific products."
The goals, ultimately, are greater supply chain visibility, streamlined communication, and reduced paperwork and clerical requirements.
“That’s why McLane has taken steps over the past year, working with customers and suppliers, to expand the use of GS1 barcodes by implementing scanning technology at both the warehouse and restaurant levels in more than half of its distribution centers,” the report states. “As a result, McLane and its customers have experienced a boost in efficiency and precision. The barcode scanning process offers greater supply chain visibility, streamlined communication, and reduced paperwork and clerical requirements.”
McLane said it and other industry leaders are working closely with GS1 to accomplish the goal of standardized tracking, and added, “In order to one day achieve fully standardized traceability, the initiative needs widespread support and active participation from the entire industry.”
Click here to read the complete McLane Co. report.
McLane Co., Temple, Texas, is a $44-billion supply-chain-services leader, providing grocery and foodservice supply-chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States.
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