ELECTRONIC BEST PRACTICES: WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Nearly ten years ago, PIDA and APPMA jointly developed a guide to common forms, bar codes and EDI for the pet industry. The guide used the most up-to-date e-commerce formats available at the time, concentrating on the ANSI X-12 EDI standards and the Uniform Code Council's UCC bar code standards. The guide was well received in the industry, but little utilized. Many manufacturers and distributors were simply not ready to delve heavily into e-commerce.

Today, PIDA and APPMA members are transferring more and more data electronically. The biggest challenge most members are facing is not whether to use e-commerce, but how to do so while accommodating the many different software systems and differing protocols used by trading partners. Manufacturers' IT departments are inundated with complex data mapping requests from dozens of distributors and retail chains. It is time for PIDA and APPMA to take the lead, once again, in helping to bring order to this chaotic-and costly-situation.

E-business vs. e-commerce
Over the past decade, the nomenclature describing technology-enhanced business practices has evolved. Electronic commerce was once the catch-all phrase used to describe business processes augmented by electronic tools, such as e-mail, Web portals, smart cards, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and anything else accomplished with computer software. Today, the term "e-commerce" (or "EC") has been narrowed to denote selling of products over the Internet. Terms such as "E-business" and "business-to-business" (B2B) describe the electronic exchange of business information between two trading partners.

Emerging Models
Several trade associations in the industrial supply world are beginning to bring clarity and continuity to the supply chain by developing e-business standards. The Power Transmission Distributors Association (PTDA) has introduced the Product and Price Information Format (PPIF) which helps manufacturers provide accurate data in a standardized format that is easily recognized and easy to use. Dan Duffy, director of sales and marketing for SKF Sealing Solutions in Elgin, IL, explains the benefits of PPIF to his company.

"The PPIF standard simplifies the process and provides concise information on our nearly 14,000 items in 48 fields of data. The PPIF offers us an opportunity to provide a significant value-added service to our distributors…"

The uniform nature of the PPIF eliminates the need to manipulate data from varying sources. As a result, a variety of potential mistakes can be reduced or eliminated. All product, part and pricing data can be provided in a standard format that is usable across any platform. It eliminates the need to map data for different distributors based on their unique format requests.

The Industrial Supply Association (ISA) represents manufacturers and distributors of MROP supplies used in industrial and construction businesses. The ISA eBusiness Implementation Guidelines, released earlier this year, are based on the best business practice of assigning unique trade item numbers, logistics serial numbers, ship-to location numbers and bill of lading numbers to facilitate tracking, tracing, inventory management, shipping, receiving, customer service and returns. The Guidelines recommend the use of the GS1 (formerly EAN/UCC) system of Global Trade Item Numbers and Global Location Numbers, which should be familiar to any pet product manufacturer with a UCC assigned number.

The Pet Industry's Challenge
Can the emerging standards developed by these two industrial supply associations be adapted for use in the pet products industry? Both are based on well-established, internationally recognized product identification systems and protocols (ANSI and EAN/UCC). Both represent the consensus position of manufacturers and distributors in their respective supply chains. PIDA and APPMA are uniquely positioned to create such consensus guidelines for the pet product channel. Let's use our collective brain-power to help drive inefficiency and cost from the entire supply chain, not just hand it off to our trading partners.

Steve King, CAE, is executive vice president of the Pet Industry Distributors Association. PIDA was founded in 1968 to provide support for pet product wholesaler-distributors and to enhance distributors' value to their suppliers and customers.