Food manufacturers will be under pressure to clean up their product data next year as leading supermarkets outline plans for global data synchronisation (GDS), Heinz has predicted.
Although it is well known that bad data causes out-of-stocks, invoice disputes and service failures, manufacturers have been slow to embrace GDS in the absence of mandates from retailers.
But this would change in 2008, said Mohini Tank, vice-chairwoman of the GS1 UK data synchronisation group and GDS project manager at Heinz.
Cash and carry giant Makro and symbol group Spar UK were already asking UK suppliers to exchange standardised product data with them via data pools (giant electronic catalogues) such as GS1 UK, SINFOS or 1SYNC, said Tank. She added that Asda was committed to the implementation of GDS.
GS1 UK said in June that more than 1,000 food and drink manufacturers were set to start exchanging data with Makro via its data pool in the coming months.
Tesco was still reviewing its strategy but was firmly committed in principle, with chief executive Terry Leahy famously describing GDS as "one of those boring subjects with very exciting consequences", said Tank. "Clean data is critical to running an efficient business. If your customers' space planning systems do not have accurate data about the pack size of your new product, then it will not fit on the shelf.
"When the top UK supermarkets start to drive this, GDS will move from the bottom to the top of manufacturers' 'to do' lists very quickly."
Martin Fincham, general manager at data synchronisation expert Lansa, said retailer adoption of GDS in the UK had been "slow, to say the least". He added: "We are a long way from achieving critical mass, but Spar's entry is an important step forward."
US-based IT consultant The Yankee Group said manufacturers that had started to clean up their master data had seen 25% reductions in purchase order and invoice errors and queries, plus improvements in availability. They had also slashed the time spent relaying information to trading partners about new products or changes to existing lines.