Only unpacked Chocolate accepted! - Or: Why retail is struggling with incomplete item master data

Whether large or small, whether from Palatinate or beautiful Bavaria, one thing everyone is obliged to do: maintain ones item master data fully and accurately. Yet somehow this task doesn't seem to be that easy.

For almost 2 years now I am involved with an ever growing customer project concerning the synchronization of master data in food retailing. Again and again, I am astonished about how inconsistently many suppliers maintain their item master data. Especially now, in the context of the migration from Sinfos to GDSN, I increasingly encounter the same problem: items with incomplete packaging hierarchies in the data pool.

One could almost say the suppliers didn't know their own products. That they had no idea that chocolate bars come in a box where they are well protected and ultimately need the least possible packaging space in order to be optimally positioned on the retailers shelf. Also, the supplier doesn't seem to be aware that for transport, lots of cartons are being lifted on one pallet which is then foil wrapped - after all, you don't want things to get broken - to be safely shipped to the next retailer by truck.
Apparently, these three packaging levels are simply unknown to them.

Or are they?

You'd think that a manufacturing company knows its products and their packaging.

But why is it then, that packaging hierarchies are often neglected or incompletely maintained? Could lack of know-how play a role? Does the small chocolate manufacturer simply ignore the GDSN standard? Does the small chocolate manufacturer even know what a packaging hierarchy and its hundred associated attributes are? Is he aware of additional mandatory information required by the EU Regulation 1169/2011? Or does he simply see no added value in the electronic maintenance of item master data in the item master data pool for his own business?

Shouldn't he be able to maintain those few mandatory information in the item master data pool practically blindfold?

In fact, this is not as trivial as one at first might think and as many suppliers assume in the beginning. There is no short supply of suppliers who are very happy to have gotten access to the data pool and then ask "And where can I now create an item?" only to call 3 hours later again, because they have realised that their products cannot be published as no order units and and no units of account have ever been maintained.

So, what do we suggest?

Set precise goals: premium, complete item master data aren't simply an operative byproduct. This topic belongs on the management agenda. For the point is not only to meet retail requirements. First class master data are a clear competitive advantage. This encompasses data provision at the touch of a button, the correct presentation of all products in trade partners online-shops, correct delivery of the demanded goods, speedier reaction-times in case of a crisis, enhanced provision of information if required by environmental organizations and of course the optimization of stocks and production.

With the right goals and consistent implementation suppliers creates benefits for themselves while almost automatically supplying its trading partners with master data.

What do we learn?

Item master data management isn't trivial. It's an issue that every company has to face. Even the smallest chocolate manufacturer should establish suitable organization, processes and IT support.

We wouldn't want it to become retail standard only to accept chocolate unpacked!