Kraft Foods, Nestlé, The Procter & Gamble Company, along with retailer Metro Group, have extended their use of the Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN) to synchronise item data in Russia.
Kraft, Nestlé and P&G are members of 1SYNC and Metro Group uses SA2 Worldsync as its global home data pool, which is also the GS1-approved country data pool for the entire Russian user community.
The three manufacturers intend to synchronise their product catalogues in multiple countries with Metro Group representation, and expect to see reduced paperwork and strengthened service levels thanks to faster setup of new items and more accurate product data.
Janna Kouchina, director sales, Kraft Foods Russia, said: “By synchronising product data with Metro Group in Russia, we are able to get real-time inventory updates from Metro’s stores in the region. This gives us the ability to get our products to the store shelf faster. We hope that more retailers will adopt this process, giving us the ability to experience similar benefits across our supply chain globally.”
Jonathan Pearce, head of supply chain for Nestlé Russian Region, added: “The operational benefits are obvious: an efficient and sustainable supply chain that contributes to maximising product availability to our consumers and shoppers. Moreover, GDSN is a very good way to build up and strengthen a long-term relationship with our customers.”
Wolfgang Menzel, IDS manager global customer development, Procter & Gamble reckons availability of accurate product master data in both P&G’s and its customers’ systems is key to “flawless operation of today’s supply chain”. He said: “Building on the 1SYNC / SA2 interoperability established in Germany, we are now scaling GDSN capability and benefits. Russia, a key growth market, is an excellent choice. Based on global standards, we are transforming our collaborative processes and eliminating waste from the end-to-end value chain.”
Finally, Urs Ulrich Katzenstein, head of master data exchange at Metro Group, said, “We are very satisfied with the outcome from accurate global data synchronisation and are working toward synchronising item data with all our suppliers globally. With the GDSN connection in Russia, other trading partners will benefit as well. Together with our partners from retail and industry we see ourselves as pioneers, establishing more efficient trade relations worldwide.”
Metro Group is looking to synchronise all item data with its suppliers globally and is currently synchronising GDSN data via SA2 Worldsync in Germany, Poland and the UK, as well as working towards rolling it out in other countries such as Denmark and Hungary.
GDSN currently contains more than 3.1 million registered items with Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs).
