Grocery retailers could save £200 million a year by using Electronic Data Interchange for despatch, a report from GS1 UK claims.
The report says that although grocers are already saving £650 million a year as a result of automating their business transactions, only 38 per cent of orders use electronic despatch advices.
The EDI Cost Savings report calculates that some 27 million orders are made in the UK grocery sector every year with 84 per cent of orders by retailers and 87 per cent of invoices transacted using EDI technology.
Cost savings of £14 per order, £8.50 per invoice and £12 per despatch advice have been predicted for EDI transactions rather than manual, paper-based processes.
Richard Wilding, professor of supply chain risk management at Cranfield School of Management, said: “EDI is a major element of creating a sustainable supply chain. It reduces errors, time and paper giving cost benefits and “green” benefits for all. Every organisation should explore how this well developed technology can be exploited further.”
