Let me open this post by saying that compliance is good for everybody. If you have struggled in the past to address the compliance mandates from retailers only to see a new compliance policy or standards in place, you will not be too thrilled to read this. Recent media reports about the tardy progress of RFID program at Walmart is not good news for compliance either.
Regardless of the struggle that many warehouses put with compliance, it has an important place in making supply chain collaboration happen. The compliance standards that I am referring to here are the RFID compliance, barcoding compliance such as UPC and UCC-128 compliance standards related to shipping documents such as BOL. These standards are the glue that make information sharing and supply chain collaboration work in warehousing and distribution.
Lets look at UCC-128 compliant label that is common in the retail supply chain. If you are reading this blog, I assume most of you are familiar with this label:
The standard element of a UCC-128 label is the 18-digit Serialized Shipping Container Label or SSCC-18. Now this is no ordinary number. It identifies a shipping container uniquely in a global context. This is akin to fixing a license plate on the container (and that is how it gets defined in Oracle WMS). The UCC-128 label also encapsulates the barcoding standards that specifies application identifier for commonly used fields. That's all OK but how does UCC-128 label facilitate collaboration? Typically a customer with a UCC-128 labeling mandate would also demand an ASN from the vendor. The ASN should contain container (or license plate) information including its contents. What this really means is the physical container identification (SSCC-18 or License plate number) is now in synch with the information contained in ASN about the container. This has significant advantages. The ASN allows planning of inbound logistics (think crossdocking). Besides the standardized label makes the inbound transaction execution more efficient. The operators know what barcode to scan, where to look for it and the application identifier correctly identifies the field being scanned. WMS knows what items to receive from the container (thanks to ASN). The container label even facilitates automation. The shipping cartons come right off the inbound truck. A fixed mount bar code scanner reads the label and a diverter routes it to the warehouse area where it should be putaway. Alternatively if it's a crossdock situation, it will identify which outbound dock door the carton should be sent.
Coming back to the opening statement: compliance is good for everybody. Now this requires faith in free markets. If the retailer is making the distribution of goods more efficient, it must pass on some of the savings to consumers. It has to because there are countless other retailers vying for the same business and they all need to remain price competitive. The overall effect is increased consumption. The end consumer benefits due to lower prices and everyone in the supply chain benefits due to higher consumption.
Update: Those of you who are interested in knowing more about UCC-128 support in Oracle WMS can see this White Paper on Metalink (user ID and password required)
