GS1 Facts and Figures
The following facts and figures are provided as background information to help
communications teams at GS1 Member Organizations plan and implement the 40th
Anniversary celebration of GS1.
ORGANISATION
GS1 is a neutral international not-for-profit association dedicated to the design
and implementation of a series of global standards and solutions to improve the
efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors.
The GS1 system of standards is the most widely used supply chain standards
system in the world.
GS1 is based in Belgium.
GS1 is governed by a Management Board composed of key leaders and drivers
from multi-nationals, retailers, manufacturers and GS1 Member Organisations.
As a result, the GS1 management board has a global, multi-sectorial make-up.
GS1 has almost two million users.
The GS1 slogan is: GS1 the global language of business.
The GS1 Vision is: A world where things and related information move efficiently
and securely for the benefit of businesses and improvement of people's lives,
every day, everywhere.
The GS1 Mission is: To be the neutral leader enabling communities to develop
and implement global standards providing the tools, trust and confidence needed
to achieve our vision.
GS1 fulfills its mission and vision through Member Organizations, which are
usually national organizations.
GS1 has 111 Member Organizations.
The GS1 System of Standards is being used in 150 countries.
The role of the MOs is to provide tools and support that enable GS1 member
companies to efficiently manage their supply chains and trade processes.
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Specifically, the main responsibilities of MOs are:
1. Allocate unique numbers - which provide the basis for the complete
range of GS1 standards.
2. Provide training and support for:
• Bar codes: Numbering and bar coding.
• eCom: EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).
• Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN): data synchronization.
• EPCglobal: RFID (Radio Frequency Identification).
3. Supply information about the standards and the continuing evolution of
the GS1 System through the Global Standards Management Process
(GSMP)
GS1 has 2,000 employees who support more than 2 million companies in the
following primary industries:
• Retail
• Healthcare
• Transport and Logistics
• Consumer electronics
• Defence
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HISTORY
GS1 traces its origins to a historic decision in the United States on April 3, 1973 by
an Ad Hoc Committee of the Uniform Grocery Code Council (UGPCC), a
corporation previously formed by the grocery industry's leading trade associations,
to select the linear bar code as the Universal Product Code (UPC) symbology. In
September of 1974 the UGPCC became the Uniform Product Code Council
(UPCC) and the administrator of the bar code.
The European Article Numbering Association (EAN International) was chartered in
Brussels, Belgium in 1977 by 12 European members and developed a bar code
fully compatible with the UPC.
The EAN was developed as a superset of the UPC bar code and added an extra
digit to the beginning of every UPC number. This expanded the number of unique
values theoretically possible by 10 times, from 1 trillion to 10 trillion. EAN-13 bar
codes also indicate the country in which the company that sells the product is
based (which may or may not be the same as the country in which the good is
manufactured).
In 2005, EAN changed its name to GS1. On June 7 of that year, the Uniform Code
Council, Inc, which had become the administrator of the U.S. bar code in
November 1984, merged with GS1, became part of the large GS1 family and
changed its name to GS1 US. The GS1 System of Standards is now used by 2
million companies across 20-plus industries worldwide.
The first UPC-marked item ever scanned was a 10-pack (50 sticks) of Wrigley's
Juicy Fruit chewing gum. The gum was scanned at Marsh's supermarket in Troy,
Ohio at 8:01 a.m. on June 26, 1974. The shopper was Clyde Dawson and the
cashier who made that first UPC scan was Sharon Buchanan. The cash register
rang up 67 cents. The entire shopping cart also had barcoded items in it, but the
gum was the first one picked up. This item is on display at the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
The man credited with inventing the bar code, N. Joseph Woodland, died on
Sunday, Dec. 9, 2012 at the age of 91. The idea for the bar code originated from
his studies of Morse Code when he was a Boy Scout. The idea for using lines for a
product code came when he drew lines through the sand with four fingers while
staying with his grandparents in Miami Beach in 1948-49. His first idea for a bar
code was a circular design. He and a partner patented this bull’s-eye-type design
on Oct. 7, 1952. The patent number is 2,612,994. Woodland and his partner
eventually sold their patent to Philco for $15,000. It was all they ever made from
their invention, which was unwieldly and languished for years. Over time, laser
scanning technology and the advent of the microprocessor made the bar code
viable. In the early 1970s, I.B.M.‘s George J. Laurer, designed the familiar
black-and-white rectangle, based on Woodland’s model and with considerable
input from Woodland, who was working at I.B.M. at the time.
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2013 marks the 40th anniversary year of GS1.
The focus of the year-long anniversary celebration is not the birth of the bar code.
The focus of the celebration is the spirit, ingenuity and vision of GS1 that led it to
develop the most widely used System of Standards for tracking products across
geographical and cultural boundaries in the world today.
BENEFITS
The GS1 bar code was the first component in the GS1 System of Standards.
The beep of the GS1 bar code is heard more than 5 million times a day in every
country around the world.
Companies using the GS1 System of Standards see measurable benefits:
1. 3.5 percent higher invoice accuracy for manufacturers.
2. 21 percent shorter lead time for warehouse operators.
3. 42 percent lower costs for distribution centers.
4. 32 percent fewer out-of-stocks for retailers.
Medical providers using GS1 Standards realize significant cost-savings:
1. 30 percent drop in outstanding days payable
2. 73 percent fewer purchase order errors
3. 80 percent reduction in obsolete stocks, resulting in increased patient safety
in Dutch hospitals.
GS1 Standards bring measurable improvements in visibility and efficiency to
supply chains:
1.
50 percent workload reduction for a Northern European freight operator
that switched from manual booking to GS1 Standards.
2.
50 percent fewer days of raw material inventory cover for companies with
a 75 percent or greater implementation rate of GS1 Serial Shipping
Container Codes compared to companies with less than 75 percent of
their logistics units identified by a GS1 SSCC code.
3.
80 percent reduction in need to inspect consumer packaged products at
the border is possible in the first year by using GS1 Standards such as the
GS1 Global Trade Item Number, according to the U.S. International Trade
Data System Product Information Committee.
GS1 sees digital purchasing becoming the norm because:
1.
36 percent of the world’s population already owns a smartphone.
2.
50 percent of all retail sales are web-influenced, according to one
estimate.
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3.
80 percent of consumer use social networks to research new products.
4.
47 percent of U.S. adults redeemed an online coupon in 2011
GS1 believes digital offers a path to extending the GS1 brand because:
1. 64 percent of consumer product web pages have information problems.
2. 29 percent of retailers and only 40 percent of consumer product
companies help consumer find exactly what they are looking for.
Using a GS1-powered traceability system, Vartini Packing in Peru reduced
response time to traceability requests from several hours to several minutes
that boosted sales by 20 percent due to increased consumer confidence.
56 percent of company leaders expect sustainability to become part of the
contractual commitment between suppliers and customers within five years,
according to a German survey.
50-60 percent of all supermarket sales are perishables, according to a recent
study. Of that inventory, 5-7 percent is lost due to shrinkage and waste, costing
retailers up to 4 percent of their revenue.
Swedish grocery chain Konsom Nord saved 85 percent of their previous total
administrative costs by switching to GS1’s eCom-powered invoicing system and
expects to recoup their investment in one calendar year.
78 percent of the shipping and receiving locations of retailers and manufacturers
have a Global Location Number and 66 percent of pallets and unit loads are
labelled with a Serial Shipping Container Code.
The GS1 bar code leads to 11 billion Euros in annual savings in France.
The GS1 GDSN-powered National Product Catalogue is expected to save the
healthcare sector in Australia AU $200 million annually.
UPC bar codes provided a theoretical maximum of 1 trillion (10^12) unique bar
codes, though in practice the number of bar codes was limited by the standards
used to create them. UPC bar codes allowed 12 digits.
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