Makro: Global data synchronisation is a ‘no brainer’

Dr Stefan Hesse, Makro’s director of finance, IT and supply chain management, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that the sheer amount of product information food manufacturers now had to share with customers, from pack shots for online shopping sites to allergen information, would force them to look again at the way they handled data.

“We know from GS1 UK's data crunch report ​​and from trends that we’ve monitored, that there is going to be an increase in demand for more product information from our customers.​

“So, if there’s an issue with data quality now, it’s going to be considerably more significant going forward."​

Discrepancies between the data held by retailers/caterers and suppliers cost the industry millions through lost or late deliveries, inaccurate orders, surplus transport costs and duplicated work, he claimed.

"If for example a supplier is doing a promotion with packs that are larger than the standard ones but the new pack dimensions have not been logged into our systems, they might not fit on the shelf, or in a truck."​

Data was also being maintained in multiple locations within companies’ own systems, which increased the likelihood of inconsistencies and meant that the same information was being entered, manually, into several different systems, he added.

No alternative​

Global data synchronisation (GDS) enables trading partners to exchange standardised product information via huge electronic data pools in a bid to tackle these problems.

“The idea of GDS is really a no brainer and I think most firms have recognised that there will soon be no alternative,"​ said Hesse. "But for the big companies with a lot of data held in lots of different places in their existing systems, to clean all this up ready for GDS is a huge enterprise.​

"It’s actually easier for smaller suppliers to get started because they don’t have as much data or complex systems, but there can also be a reluctance to deal with technical issues. But it’s not rocket science, and there is a lot of help available.”​

Building a business case​

If you sat down and tried to quantify the cost of problems caused by bad or unsynchronised data, you could build a strong business case for GDS just between two trading partners, he said. But the biggest benefits would come when there was critical mass and everyone was using the GDSN.

His comments came as Brake Bros, Makro, Compass Group, Mitchells & Butlers, 3663 and Country Range wrote to suppliers to ask them to start cleaning up their data and publishing it into a data pool on the GDSN.

Said Hesse: “This industry commitment means that suppliers can now start preparing for GDS, confident that a single, standardised way of delivering product information is imminent.”​

• Click here​ to read about the Sainsbury’s GDS trial.
• Click here​ to download the GS1 UK Data Crunch Report.