BARCODE SYSTEMS, UK

2005 Sunrise Date Compliance…what it means to you

The Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) has announced that by January 1, 2005 all U.S. and Canadian companies must be capable of scanning and processing EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols, in addition to 12-digit U.P.C. symbols, at point-of-sale. This key initiative, called the 2005 Sunrise Date, is structured to help global trading partners realize maximum supply chain efficiency, as well as enable North American companies to compete more effectively in global trade and commerce.

The following information will assist you in understanding the topic, so that you can make informed decisions for your organization. For more information, download our free 2005 Sunrise Date White Paper to learn more.

You will no longer be able to parse the product identification data from any U.P.C. or EAN bar code.

The Mandate:

All point-of-sale systems must read and process U.P.C.-A, U.P.C.-E, EAN-13 and EAN-8 symbols by January 1st of 2005 in order to be compliant.

All retail systems must accommodate variable length company prefixes.

The Recommendation:

While you are updating your system's database to comply with the mandate, it is strongly recommended that your database accept the 14 digit data structures found in the new Reduced Space Symbology bar codes.

To get a free copy of a white paper on RSS codes, please request it on our enquiry form.

What is GTIN?

The term ‘GTIN' or Global Trade Item Number was coined by the UCC to encompass all the EAN.UCC system's data structures. It is simply a new way of talking about what we have all talked about before – U.P.C., EAN, and UCC/EAN Code 128 bar codes and now RSS.

What about my scanners?

To comply with the Sunrise date mandate, your scanners must scan and decode EAN bar codes and send the product identification data to your host system.

All Motorola scanners decode EAN bar codes as part of their factory default symbology settings.
You should still check your scanning hardware in case the default settings have been changed.
GTIN is a data structure and does not affect scanning hardware in any way.
Reduced Space Symbology® is new and is implemented in some of our scanners.

The 2005 Sunrise Date and Its Impact on Your Business

Executive Summary

Within the retail industry, the EAN.UCC System helps facilitate global commerce through effective supply chain management. The EAN.UCC System uses unambiguous numbers to identify goods, services, assets and locations worldwide based on internationally accepted and business-driven standards. More than just a series of numbers or data structures, this system delivers a common language that is designed to help companies accurately and speedily communicate trading information across the supply chain in the retail industry anywhere throughout the globe. However, United States and Canadian companies should conform to this standard, and most company databases can currently only accept a 12-digit U.P.C. symbol.

To fully optimize the efficiency and usefulness of the global EAN.UCC System, it is increasingly important for North American retailers to be able to scan EAN bar code symbols and store the resultant data string in databases. Therefore, the Uniform Code Council, Inc.® (UCC®), which manages the numbering system for the United States and Canada, is requiring that all retailers have this capability by the year 2005. The UCC initiative is called the 2005 Sunrise Date. This key mandate is structured to help global trading partners realize maximum supply chain efficiency, and it's also instrumental in enabling North American companies to compete more effectively in global trade and commerce. The initiative assists and encourages trade within North America by eliminating the need for global companies to double mark or keep separate inventories of goods.

About the 2005 Sunrise Date Compliance Mandate

On January 1, 2005, North American companies must meet the following criteria in order to be in compliance with the 2005 Sunrise Date:

All point-of-sale systems must read and process U.P.C.-A, U.P.C.-E, EAN-13 and EAN-8 symbols
All retail systems must accommodate variable length company prefixes

Additionally, the UCC is strongly recommending that companies expand their host database, associated systems and applications to accept data structures of 14 digits. This is clearly a recommendation only and is not part of the 2005 Sunrise Date compliance mandate. However, by updating these systems, North American retailers will be able to accept the complete family of EAN.UCC data carriers, which leads to more supply chain efficiencies resulting in a faster time to market. To simplify the transition, the EAN.UCC family of 14-digit data structures is now referred to as the global trade item number (GTIN).

What is GTIN?

GTIN describes a family of EAN.UCC global data structures that employ 14 digits and can be encoded into any type of data carrier. Currently, GTIN is used exclusively within bar codes, but it could also be used in other data carriers such as radio frequency identification (RFID). The GTIN is only a term and does not impact any existing standards, nor does it place any additional requirements on scanning hardware. For North American companies, the U.P.C. is now a member of the GTIN family.

The family of data structures (not symbologies) comprising GTIN include:

UCC-12: also known as the U.P.C, this is a 12-digit number used primarily in North America
EAN/UCC-13: also known as an EAN code; this is a 13-digit number used predominately outside of North America
EAN/UCC-14: this is a 14-digit number used to identify trade items at various packaging levels
EAN/UCC-8: this is an 8-digit number used predominately outside of North America

Today, five symbologies support this GTIN data structure: U.P.C.; EAN; Interleaved 2 of 5; UCC/EAN Code 128; and Reduced Space Symbology® (RSS). Of these, Interleaved 2 of 5, UCC/EAN Code 128 and RSS employ 14-digit data structures of which the 14th character is a packaging level indicator (i.e., item or case). Both U.P.C. and EAN have an implied packaging level of a single item. Therefore, these symbologies support the GTIN data structure without changing the number of encoded data characters. Table 1 further illustrates the relationship between GTIN, legacy terminology, symbologies and use at point of sale. In most cases, the legacy terminology and the symbology are called by the same name. GTIN changes this by separating the name of the data structure from the data carrier or, in this case, the symbology.

Retailers who wish to accommodate GTIN need to make an important change to current practices because the full 14-digit data string must be processed and stored.

Why Change?

The 12-digit UCC-12 data structure, which is encoded in a U.P.C. bar code, is used in North America, while EAN/UCC-13 data structures encoded in EAN-13 bar codes (formerly known as European Article Numbers) are used throughout the rest of the world. Today, a multinational manufacturer wishing to sell their product in North America must separately label the product with a U.P.C. bar code. This will no longer be necessary after North American retailers accept EAN-13 bar codes. Multinational manufacturers will then assign a single GTIN for their product and use it throughout the supply chain.

Although the UCC is not running out of numbers, utilizing EAN-13 bar codes within North America allows for a significant expansion of assigned company prefixes. These company prefixes will also be variable length. Currently the EAN.UCC data structures incorporate fixed length company prefixes. This can be inefficient, especially when manufacturers of small product lines receive a company prefix that may contain 100,000 products. Likewise, manufacturers with large product lines are restricted by this limitation and must use multiple company prefixes to encompass their entire product line. Variable-length prefixes resolve this issue. For more information on varying length prefixes and eliminating data parsing, visit the UCC website at http://www.uc-council.org/news/ne_errata_3-27-00.html.

It is important to recognize that the U.P.C. bar code is not going away because it is a vital component of the UCC.EAN system. The inclusion of EAN bar codes enhances and expands an already excellent process. This is also true of Reduced Space Symbology® (RSS), an emerging symbology that brings 14-digit scanning capability to small item identification. RSS is not intended to replace either U.P.C. or EAN bar codes and is included in GTIN.

Impact in 2005

On January 1, 2005, North American retailers will be expected to be able to receive products marked with U.P.C. and EAN bar codes encoding UCC-12, EAN/UCC-13 and EAN/UCC-8 data structures. Also, non-compliance with the 13-digit mandate may lead to system failures, additional costs to the retailer and delays in the supply chain. Although the 2005 Sunrise Date also requires that the retailer's database be expanded to 13 digits, it is strongly recommended that companies expand the database to accommodate 14 digits to allow the data from newer RSS bar codes to be correctly transmitted to the host system. Any data structures requiring less than 14 digits should be right justified and left zero filled.

The UCC strongly recommends that North American companies begin conversion planning immediately in order to meet the January 1, 2005, deadline. More information about compliance is available at www.uc-council.org/2005sunrise.

Impact of the 2005 Sunrise Date on Scanning Hardware

Fortunately for North American retailers, changes to the decode methodology for either U.P.C. or EAN symbols are not required because the GTIN is a data structure and not part of the 2005 Sunrise Date compliance mandate. GTIN also places no additional scanning hardware requirements. Specifically, when the 2005 Sunrise Date arrives, scanning hardware will continue to read and transmit 12-digit U.P.C.; 13-digit EAN-13; 14-digit UCC/EAN Code 128; and 14-digit Interleaved 2 of 5 bar codes. Updating your existing Motorola Technologies scanning hardware is not necessary unless changes have been made to the default configuration as shipped by the manufacturer. Motorola Technologies customers should check the default configuration to ensure that EAN-13 and EAN-8 are not disabled.

However, RSS symbology, a high-density linear (1D) symbology that is smaller than UPC/EAN symbols, is not included in the 2005 Sunrise date requirement. Designed for space sensitive applications and omnidirectional scanning, RSS already utilizes the GTIN 14 character data structure. Motorola Technologies includes RSS in many products, including the LS 1900, LS 2100, LS 4000, LS 6000i Series, LS 9208 Series, M2000 Series.

If you have any further questions related to your scanning hardware, please contact us to discuss the impact of the 2005 Sunrise Date on your equipment.