Successful manufacturers manage to keep up with changing customer demand. The coronavirus crisis has made it painfully clear which packaged goods manufacturers are able to respond rapidly to trends and which aren’t. […]
Information is key in the development of sustainable products
Product innovation is often driven by public opinion – but what if one department of a company decides to eliminate palm oil from its processes, for example, while another department works with a supplier that still uses it? It’s essential for all departments to keep one another informed about their development activities. […]
GBIN: The globally unique number to identify brands
GBIN is the globally unique number to identify brands. Why? To enable reliable machine-to-machine communication. This new, global standard for brand identification opens a whole new world of opportunities for data to be shared more efficiently and effectively between your internal systems and with your trade partners. […]
The solution for sharing product images via GS1 GDSN
It’s always been a challenge for manufacturers to make sure product images are shared correctly on every external channel. A new level of complexity was recently added: selecting the right file names for images in GS1-GDSN Data Source. […]
Why use value streams to design your system landscape?
Many businesses are facing the same dilemma on a production level that they used to have in sales and finance: should we go best of breed or integrated? Do we use different solutions for every process, or is there one system that covers everything? […]
The Connected Value Stream Model©
Many of our clients increasingly struggle with designing and maintaining their information flow and related system landscape. Digitisation of supply chains, marketing operations and sales (eCommerce) is the main driver behind this increasing complexity. […]
At Wavin, ETIM is not just a classification, but a way to communicate internally
Imagine offering 50,000 different products in 25 different countries. The products are defined by up to 4,000 features, including colour, diameter and material. This is the daily reality of Wavin, a manufacturer of plastic piping systems. The complexity of their product portfolio propelled Wavin to become one of the pioneers in ETIM. […]
Classifying is a pain – even Aristotle knew that
People prefer order over chaos. Classifying things helps us get a grip on the surrounding world. It’s been like that since ancient times when Aristotle classified every living creature known to man. […]
Computer says “all fields are filled” does not equal good data quality
When it comes to product information, manufacturers are often too obsessed with assessing the quality and efficiency of data, often resulting in false estimates. The quality of our data depends largely on the context. Also, we tend to confuse data completeness with data quality. […]
Why workflow-based PIM is not the solution for packaged goods manufacturers
Many PIM solution providers claim they can support product data business process with a workflow module. This may sound too good to be true. That’s because it is. […]
EU 1169/2011, How product labels lost their reputation as single source for nutrition facts
In the past, product labels were as truthful as could be expected. All you might need to know about a product would be right there, on the list of ingredients. Whenever someone needed to know about ingredients or allergens, required no more than a quick glance at the label. […]