GS1 Canada
Encyclopedia
GS1 Canada is a member of GS1
, a supply chain standards organization.
multi-industry system of global supply chain standards. For over 35 years, the GS1 System of global supply chain standards has been transforming the way organizations worldwide communicate and work together, delivering proven results in multiple sectors, including the groundbreaking use of bar codes in retail. The bar code is the most well known GS1 standard, accounting for over 6 billion scanning transactions per day.
GS1 standards provide a global framework that allows products, services, and information to move efficiently and securely, making the supply chain faster, less complex and less costly. These voluntary standards ensure effective exchanges between companies around the world; facilitating interoperability and providing structure to many industries. Over 140 countries are represented in the GS1 standards development process and over one million organizations worldwide use GS1 standards to enhance the efficiency and visibility of their supply chains.
There is one GS1 organization per country, which is the recognized authority for the establishment of industry requirements that are ultimately incorporated into the GS1 System of global standards. GS1 Canada is the recognized GS1 Member Organization for Canada, enabling its more than 20,000 members – organizations of all sizes from over 20 sectors – to enhance their competitiveness and cost effectiveness by adopting the GS1 System of standards and best practices for supply chains.
GS1 Canada’s primary mandate is the development of the GS1 System, a body of voluntary global standards, including GS1 Identification Keys, which is designed to improve supply chain management. GS1 Canada is responsible for representing the requirements of Canadian industry in the development of these standards at the global level, based on opportunities identified by the community to apply the GS1 System to enhance efficiencies and resolve common supply chain challenges, in a non-competitive context. This System includes:
Community Manager
As a neutral, not-for-profit, industry-led organization, GS1 Canada is mandated to bring together representatives of all sizes, from all points along the supply chain – manufacturers, distributors, transporters, retailers, healthcare provider, technology solution providers and trade associations – to identify common pain points or opportunities to generate efficiencies through the development and application of global standards. Through this collaboration with industry, GS1 Canada ensures that the requirements of Canadian organizations – both large multinationals and small businesses – are identified and integrated into the Standards Management Process (GSMP); ensuring Canadian organizations are equipped to participate in global trade.
Educator
In its role as educator, GS1 Canada provides practical information for Canadian organizations to integrate global supply chain standards and best practices into their business processes.
Implementation Partner
GS1 Canada supports organizations in the implementation of supply chain standards and best practices through provision of tools and resources. This enables them to manage their supply chain and trade processes more efficiently, thus reducing costs, improving productivity, and accelerating products’ speed-to-market.
As the only authorized source for the assignment of GS1 Company Prefix Licences to Canadian organizations – providing the foundation for uniquely and globally identifying trade items, logistic units, locations, parties, assets and more – GS1 Canada’s role is to ensure that Canadian businesses of all scale and size can capitalize on the benefits of the GS1 System of standards, including:
(U.P.C., otherwise known as the bar code).
In 1975, the Grocery Product Manufacturers of Canada established the Product Code Council of Canada to manage the Canadian bar code system. The EDI Council of Canada was also established in 1985 to manage standardized electronic business messaging solutions to improve the efficiency of the Canadian grocery supply chain. In 1997, the functions of these two organizations were consolidated under the Electronic Commerce Council of Canada (ECCC).
In 1977, the European Article Numbering Association (EAN International) was chartered in Belgium, and its EAN-13 code was developed to be fully compatible with the U.P.C.
In 1990, the UCC and EAN International signed a cooperative agreement formalizing their intent to co-manage global standards, and in 2002, the UCC and the ECCC joined EAN International as Member Organizations representing North American companies in this standards management process, formally solidifying the global reach of the EAN•UCC System.
In 2005, GS1 launched worldwide as the new name for EAN/UCC, formalizing the role of this body as the leader in global, open, multi-sector supply chain standards.
GS1
Founded in 1977, GS1 is an international not-for-profit association dedicated to the development and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across multiple sectors...
, a supply chain standards organization.
About GS1 Canada
GS1 is a neutral, not-for-profit, industry-driven organization that manages the world’s most widely used,multi-industry system of global supply chain standards. For over 35 years, the GS1 System of global supply chain standards has been transforming the way organizations worldwide communicate and work together, delivering proven results in multiple sectors, including the groundbreaking use of bar codes in retail. The bar code is the most well known GS1 standard, accounting for over 6 billion scanning transactions per day.
GS1 standards provide a global framework that allows products, services, and information to move efficiently and securely, making the supply chain faster, less complex and less costly. These voluntary standards ensure effective exchanges between companies around the world; facilitating interoperability and providing structure to many industries. Over 140 countries are represented in the GS1 standards development process and over one million organizations worldwide use GS1 standards to enhance the efficiency and visibility of their supply chains.
There is one GS1 organization per country, which is the recognized authority for the establishment of industry requirements that are ultimately incorporated into the GS1 System of global standards. GS1 Canada is the recognized GS1 Member Organization for Canada, enabling its more than 20,000 members – organizations of all sizes from over 20 sectors – to enhance their competitiveness and cost effectiveness by adopting the GS1 System of standards and best practices for supply chains.
Primary Roles of GS1 Canada
Standards DeveloperGS1 Canada’s primary mandate is the development of the GS1 System, a body of voluntary global standards, including GS1 Identification Keys, which is designed to improve supply chain management. GS1 Canada is responsible for representing the requirements of Canadian industry in the development of these standards at the global level, based on opportunities identified by the community to apply the GS1 System to enhance efficiencies and resolve common supply chain challenges, in a non-competitive context. This System includes:
- BarCodes (standards for bar codes that use the globally recognized GS1 Identification Keys for unique identification of products, locations, services, etc);
- eCom (standards for electronic business messaging that allow rapid, efficient and accurate automatic electronic transmission of agreed business data between trading partners, such as purchase order, ship-to notice, and payment confirmation information);
- GDSN (standards for the secure and continuous exchange of accurate, standardized data between trading partners using GS1 Canada’s National Product Registry and the Global Data Synchronization Network);
- GS1 EPCglobal (A new global standards system that combines Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology, existing communications network infrastructure and the Electronic Product CodeElectronic Product CodeThe Electronic Product Code is designed as a universal identifier that provides a unique identity for every physical object anywhere in the world, for all time. Its structure is defined in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standard , which is an open standard freely available for download from the website...
(a number for uniquely identifying an item) to enable immediate and automatic identification and tracking of an item through the whole supply chain, globally.
Community Manager
As a neutral, not-for-profit, industry-led organization, GS1 Canada is mandated to bring together representatives of all sizes, from all points along the supply chain – manufacturers, distributors, transporters, retailers, healthcare provider, technology solution providers and trade associations – to identify common pain points or opportunities to generate efficiencies through the development and application of global standards. Through this collaboration with industry, GS1 Canada ensures that the requirements of Canadian organizations – both large multinationals and small businesses – are identified and integrated into the Standards Management Process (GSMP); ensuring Canadian organizations are equipped to participate in global trade.
Educator
In its role as educator, GS1 Canada provides practical information for Canadian organizations to integrate global supply chain standards and best practices into their business processes.
Implementation Partner
GS1 Canada supports organizations in the implementation of supply chain standards and best practices through provision of tools and resources. This enables them to manage their supply chain and trade processes more efficiently, thus reducing costs, improving productivity, and accelerating products’ speed-to-market.
Membership to GS1 Canada
Originally created by manufacturers and retailers to improve efficiencies in the distribution of food and consumer goods to supermarkets, GS1 standards today are used by over a million companies in over 20 sectors including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, pharmacy, grocery, logistics, high tech and more.As the only authorized source for the assignment of GS1 Company Prefix Licences to Canadian organizations – providing the foundation for uniquely and globally identifying trade items, logistic units, locations, parties, assets and more – GS1 Canada’s role is to ensure that Canadian businesses of all scale and size can capitalize on the benefits of the GS1 System of standards, including:
- Reduced costs, through implementation of leading global best practices that drive out inefficiencies;
- Enhanced business processes, improving supply chain performance and customer satisfaction with increased speed to market;
- Improved global trading capabilities, enabling organizations to reach new markets;
- A global forum through which to connect with trading partners, solution providers, and industry colleagues to address common challenges, and contribute proactively to the global problem-solving process;
- Strategic advantage through access to the latest global business issues, trends, emerging technologies;
- Exposure to new supply chain innovations, with opportunities to participate in pilot implementations of leading-edge practices.
GS1 Canada’s History
In 1969, members of the Grocery Manufacturers of America (GMA) and the National Association of Food Chains expressed the need for an "inter–industry product code”, and thus the Uniform Grocery Product Code Council (later called the Uniform Code Council) was established in 1972 to administer the new Universal Product CodeUniversal Product Code
The Universal Product Code is a barcode symbology , that is widely used in North America, and in countries including the UK, Australia, and New Zealand for tracking trade items in stores. Its most common form, the UPC-A, consists of 12 numerical digits, which are uniquely assigned to each trade item...
(U.P.C., otherwise known as the bar code).
In 1975, the Grocery Product Manufacturers of Canada established the Product Code Council of Canada to manage the Canadian bar code system. The EDI Council of Canada was also established in 1985 to manage standardized electronic business messaging solutions to improve the efficiency of the Canadian grocery supply chain. In 1997, the functions of these two organizations were consolidated under the Electronic Commerce Council of Canada (ECCC).
In 1977, the European Article Numbering Association (EAN International) was chartered in Belgium, and its EAN-13 code was developed to be fully compatible with the U.P.C.
In 1990, the UCC and EAN International signed a cooperative agreement formalizing their intent to co-manage global standards, and in 2002, the UCC and the ECCC joined EAN International as Member Organizations representing North American companies in this standards management process, formally solidifying the global reach of the EAN•UCC System.
In 2005, GS1 launched worldwide as the new name for EAN/UCC, formalizing the role of this body as the leader in global, open, multi-sector supply chain standards.