When a company imports more than 100 million pounds of seafood every year from waters around the world, offering products represented by about 1,500 SKUs, it has the potential to drown in product data. Data cascades from the point of origin to a warehouse, a distribution center and a processing plant to other distribution points — all connected by shippers to a stockroom, a frozen food aisle and into a consumer’s hands. Everywhere along the way, inaccurate product data can churn up waves of problems.
Beaver Street Fisheries (BSF) of Jacksonville, Fla., realized early its trading partners would require supply chain standards to communicate key information about products as they move through the supply chain. BSF also knew that with the technology available, government traceability mandates would significantly increase, in the U.S and abroad, making compliance-based accurate product data a survival skill. Becoming a member of the Foodservice GS1 US Standards Initiative, Beaver Street Fisheries launched an ambitious and comprehensive data governance initiative leveraging GS1 Standards and following industry-developed best practices.