‘Barcoding investments are very nominal, when compared to other software applications’

Barcoding has gained strong ground in the country, especially with retailers. EAN/UCC has introduced its barcodes in the country, which has gained wide acceptance in the short time. In an exclusive interview with Reena Mital, Mr Ravi Mathur, CEO, EAN India, talks about the advantages of the system, especially when integrated with other IT solutions.

What has been the level of acceptance of EAN/UCC standards in the industry? How many users do you have in textiles, clothing and the retail sectors since its launch?

EAN standards have been widely accepted in the FMCG segment. Almost 75 per cent of FMCG companies in India have already incorporated EAN barcodes on their products. In the textile and clothing sector, there are over 400 companies using EAN barcodes. Almost all exporters in this sector have to affix EAN barcodes due to international buyers’ requirement. Some of the Indian retail chains using EAN barcodes are Pantaloon, Food Bazaar, Foodworld, Musicworld, Metro Cash & Carry, Nilgiris, and Trinethra.

How important is such an application for the smaller units in the industry? How is the company promoting the same to such units and what has been the response?

Many of the smaller units supply to major brands. There is a requirement by such major brands to maintain quality assurance through track and trace which requires suppliers to use barcodes. Many smaller units are also exporters who need to affix EAN barcodes based on directives of their international buyers. EAN codes lend themselves to a lot of integration with other IT solutions. Use of EAN codes facilitates small scale garment exporters to host information on their products for access by international buyers through use of the GEPIR service of EAN International. The Global EAN Party Information Register (GEPIR) is a repository of information of Indian companies and their products who are registered as EAN India subscribers. It also interconnects this database of Indian companies with the international data of over 9,00,000 EAN member companies across 128 countries.

Currently, financial assistance has been provided by the ministry of small scale industries and the ministry of food processing industries, government of India, for use of international numbering standards in barcoding and e-commerce applications. The companies have responded mainly because of their buyers’ requirement, however they do understand the benefits of its applications in improving quality assurance, out-of-stocks and overstocks situation, inventory management, etc as well. Applications and benefits are quite obvious - track and trace, stock management, work in progress, sales forecasting, vendor managed inventory systems, etc.

What would be the kind of infrastructure, IT systems that the smaller units would need to put in place, before using EAN.UCC? From your interactions with the industry, do you feel these companies are interested and understand the need for the same?

In case the company wants to adopt the barcode because of buyers’ requirement then it is only an artwork change to accommodate the barcode which has to be incorporated on the product packaging for which no IT systems/infrastructure are required. While they respond to mandates of their buyers principally, they are willing to look at adoption of EAN barcodes for quality assurance, stock management, etc as well.

Does using the standard also entail a change in management practices to a more professional level? How far does this exist in the Indian industry, and more importantly in the RMG sector?

Yes it enhances quality of MIS reports and hence quality decision making processes related to new product introductions, category management, stocks control, sales forecasting, stock visibility, etc. Large companies are conscious of this and are using it for such applications.

How different is this system from other IT solutions such as ERP, supply chain management systems, logistics management solutions, etc?

Barcoding is not an IT solution but is an automatic data capture technology used to capture data at very high speeds with 100 per cent accuracy which helps eliminate manual errors/time delays in data capture. When integrated with existing ERP, warehouse management and other logistics/supply chain software applications, it enables end-to-end supply chain automation.

What is the investment needed for the standard, as against the other IT solutions for the industry?

Barcoding investments are very nominal - limited to cost of barcode label/one time change in packaging artwork and use of EAN prefix number. The investments are almost negligible compared to other software applications.