Compliance Assurance

Supply chain operations rely on the consistent and accurate identification of the products, parts, and materials moving through them. Many industries such as retail, automotive, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and defense have therefore standardized product, part, and material marking to achieve this goal. These standards apply to both traditional bar code as well as RFID technologies. Decisionpoint is not only an expert on these marking standards but also delivers an end-to-end solution set for compliance. This includes label and tag consulting, printing and encoding systems, printer and RFID consumables, and service and support for all systems.

• Universal Product Code (UPC)
• Serialized Shipping Container Code (SSCC)
• RFID Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN)
• RFID Unit Identification (UID)

Of course the UPC code has been around since the 1970’s. However its age doesn’t make it any less relevant to retail store operations. On the contrary, the UPC code is more critical than ever to providing efficiencies in retail point-of-sale (POS) systems.

The widespread adoption of UPC code has virtually eliminated the need for retail price stickers, particularly in the retail grocery industry. Consumers nowadays must rely on item shelf price labels to be able to see the prices of items on the retail shelf because the UPC code itself contains no price information. Some government jurisdictions in the United States have passed laws requiring these shelf price labels and that the price reflected on the label matches the price of the item stored in the in-store computer.

The Serialized Shipping Container Code (SSCC) was introduced by major retailers in the late 1980’s as a way to streamline their own distribution by requiring their suppliers to mark cases and pallets shipped to them with a standardized shipping label. This label contains a serialized number in both bar code and human readable form to be used as a “license plate” for the shipping container.

The Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) is in the process of being adopted by the retail supply chain following the same path as the UPC code, except as it applies to RFID technology.

Unit Identification (UID) is also an RFID marking standard. It is required by the US Department of Defense for its suppliers who provide parts of high value and/or critical nature.