Exchanging RFID data in EDI

Recently the EPC Technical Development Team created a working group called the Message & Process Sub Team.  Participation was encouraged from retail, grocery, healthcare and the U.S. Department of Defense.  At our first teleconference we talked about how we will exchange Electronic Product Code (EPC) information in electronic business transactions.  The EPC is the data structure used to exchange things like Serialized Global Trade Item Numbers and Serial Shipping Container Codes in RFID. 
We are trying to synchronize the conventions used for X12 EDI (VICS Retail and UCS Grocery), EANCOM EDIFACT and XML Business Messages. 

 At our first meeting we did establish that the GTIN and SSCC data decoded from an RFID tag is no different than the data read from a bar code.  The EAN.UCC data structures are the same, regardless of the data carrier.  We are initially focused on the exchange of information in the Ship Notice / Deliver / Despatch Advice.  Basically, with the SSCC, nothing will change.  The same is true of the GTIN portion of the Serialized GTIN.  EPCglobal, Inc. has a Fast Moving Consumer Goods team working on the use case for exchanging individual serial numbers for each GTIN in an electronic business document. 

Below please find the minutes from the first meeting.  I am chairman of this sub-team, so if you have any questions or comments, please let me know.

 

 

M I N U T E S

1.    Administrative

 

          Call to Order / Introductions 

o    Paula Giovannetti called the meeting to order at 3:37 PM ET.

o    Attendance was taken and reviewed.

 

·         Antitrust Caution / Intellectual Property

o    Paula Giovannetti advised the group that the GS1 Antitrust Caution and Intellectual Property Policies were in effect.

 

·         Agenda Finalization

o    There were no additions or changes to the agenda.

  

2.   Discuss Committee Scope and Process

     

·     Paula Giovannetti reviewed the first portion of the EPC / EDI Working Group PowerPoint^® Presentation:

o    The role of the EPC Technical Development Team is to evaluate the output of EPCglobal, Inc., where it pertains to the GS1 Global Standards Management Process (GSMP), and prepare that output for processing through the GSMP.

o    Describe the issue at hand:  capturing data from both traditional bar codes and RFID tags containing Electronic Product Codes (EPC), and then exchanging that data in various forms of Electronic Business Transactions (EBT), including EANCOM EDIFact, GS1 XML Business Messages and North American X12 EDI.  This discussion does not include the EPC Information System, which is currently under development at EPCglobal.

o    Explain that numerous RFID first-movers are asking their supplier trading partners to exchange EPC data in EBT in very different ways, resulting in multiple solutions.  The various EPCglobal, GS1 and GS1-US documents and guidelines have apparently not produced a clear structure and method for exchanging EPC data.

 

·     Scott Gray (GS1), Tom Brady (GS1) and Michele Southall (EPCglobal) discussed the role of the EPCglobal Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Business Action Group (BAG) in this area:

o    The EPCglobal FMCG BAG is working on two high level Use Cases with a business analysis of EPC data exchange in traditional EBT. 

o    Michele indicated that the working group has expanded the definition of those high level use cases into detailed functions and will submit change requests, later in the year

o    Gaps in the process were identified:

o    The X12 EDI Regional Group (XRG) is not a part of the GSMP; it is a GS1-US Regional Group.  Never the less, it manages EDI standards used by many RFID user companies. 

o    Change Requests received by the Information Technical Requirements Group (ITRG), and XRG for EPC and RFID related issues have not always gone to the EPC TDT, nor is there a process to provide this information to the appropriate EPCglobal committee.

o    There is capability, in existing Electronic Business Transactions, to exchange EPC information today.  There are message elements and qualifiers that can be used to exchange EPC information.  We need guidelines on the syntax and methodologies used to convey EPC information using the existing EBT structures. 

o    Due to the EPCglobal Intellectual Property Rights Policy, discovery and discussion that occurs in EPCglobal committees is not available to the GSMP until after a final decision has been made.

 

·         Scott Gray and Michele Southall proposed the following:

o    When GSMP and XRG receive EPC related Change Requests, the EPC TDT Staff Lead will be notified.  

o    The EPC TDT Staff Lead will notify the EPCglobal FMCG BAG Staff Lead to validate the request against EPCglobal related activities and priorities.

o    Michele asked GSMP to defer action on the two EPCglobal FMCG Use Cases (Direct Store Delivery and DC-to-DC) until improved inputs from the BAG were submitted as CRs later in 2005.

o    The EPC TDT Process & Message Sub-Team (proposed new name for this work group) would remain in tact in order to preserve the collaboration between EANCOM, AIDC, XML and X12 teams, but would be in a holding pattern on this particular issue until the FMCG BAG input is received.

o    If there are immediate needs for EPC, user companies in GSMP, would ask the EPCglobal FMCG BAG through GSMP, to validate them as soon as possible.

  

3.  Exchanging EAN.UCC Keys, specifically SSCC and SGTIN in EBT

 

·     Steve Rosenberg explained that XRG has Change Requests asking for guidance in completing the EDI field which currently holds the SSCC and GTIN + Serial Number in the Ship Notification transaction and in various warehouse transactions:

·     

      Scott Gray explained that the data elements used in business messages or applications are differentiated by Application Identifiers described in the General EAN.UCC Specifications independent of the AIDC carrier used to carry them on the package.  The data structure related to that Application Identifier is the same, regardless of carrier (bar code or RFID tag) and symbol or tag overhead is stripped out by the decoding system prior to use within the application.

·    

      Conveying the Serial Shipping Container Code (AI 00) in EDI does not change.  Whether it is captured using a bar code scanner or an RFID reader, the output is the same.

·         Conveying the Serialized Global Trade Item Number (SGTIN):

o    Paula Giovannetti noted that the EPCglobal Tag Data Standards indicates that the decoded output of an SGTIN includes the GTIN, Serial Number and the Filter Value. 

o    The group agreed the Filter Value is not an attribute of the GTIN.  It is merely a tool used by RFID reading systems to gain efficiencies and does not need to be conveyed between two trading partners.

o    There is an open issue regarding whether or not there is a business case for exchanging the EPC GTIN Serial Numbers between trading partners.  The EPCglobal FMCG BAG is currently working on this.

  

4.   Next Steps

• The GSMP will develop a policy clarifying that, independent of the carrier used for automatic data capture, only data structures associated with Application Identifiers are exchanged at an application level.

• Clarification of this concept should be recorded as a GS1 Policy and be included in both the General EAN.UCC Specifications and in the EPCglobal Tag Data Standards.  Tom Brady, Michele Southall, Paula Giovannetti and Scott Gray will work on this proposal.

• The distribution list for this EDI / EPC Work Group will be notified of the proposed Policy for their input.

• The GSMP will place the proposed Policy into the normal Change Request process, including review according to GSMP processes for Policy Approval.

• This group agreed that there would be value in comparing the methods used to exchange EPC data in EANCOMM, XML Messages and X12 EDI to enhance alignment where possible (even if this comparison proves that nothing has changed when exchanging EPC data).

 

5.   Adjournment

• We did not identify a date for the next teleconference.  A status report will be given to the EPC TDT group and a determination made regarding additional meetings and work items.  Further, this group will be notified when the EPCglobal FMCG BAG returns the results of their findings in the form of a GSMP Change Request.

• The meeting was adjourned at 4:20 PM ET.

• These minutes were submitted by Paula Giovannetti