Page 14 - Food&Drink August 2022 magazine

COVER STORY
Leading from the cloud
In 2012, incorrect labels were increasing costs in the B2B supply chain. While they are still an issue today, a new industry cloud-based tool is changing that. And it’s free. Samantha Schelling writes.
TEN years ago, distribution centres (DCs) and the supply chain were increasingly moving towards automation.
Back then, with the high volume of goods they handled, it made correct labelling critical. Fast forward a decade, and DCs are even more automated with an ever increasing volume of goods. So what’s happened to the labelling errors?
Well, they’re still there.
Matthews Australasia CEO Mark Dingley says, “Label non-compliance is one of the biggest issues in the supply chain. We hear this from retailers frequently. It costs money, it wastes time and it’s so avoidable.”
Dingley says he’s also been asked if it is so avoidable, why does it happen so much?
“Easy to answer,” he replies, “it comes down to education about labelling and having the right tools.”
With the support of GS1 Australia and the industry, Matthews set about fixing both those issues a few years ago.
retailers. iDSnet Cloud is a tool for suppliers to produce GS1-compliant carton and pallet labels, thus avoid retailer rejection due to compliance errors, and get their products onto supermarket shelves.”
And, Dingley says, they decided to make the tool free.
“I’ve been asked ‘why’ on that one many times. Basically, one of Matthews’ aims as a company is to be part of improving Australia’s manufacturing industry as a whole. All our solutions, no matter if it’s coding or labelling, help businesses in supply-chain management, which, in turn, helps towards improving Australia’s manufacturing industry.
“iDSnet Cloud was a tool we developed in tandem with GS1 and major supermarkets to help the industry overall. Today, we are still seeing almost 50 per cent of compliance issues at retailer DCs are still the SSCC pallet label. To me, it then made sense for us to offer that tool in its current form to the entire Australian
“It’s interesting too, and I’m not sure whether the attention was a spin-off from the AUSPACK recognition, but we’ve already had some noteworthy informal discussions with businesses outside manufacturing about iDSnet Cloud as a SaaS product. It’s certainly something we’re open to more with the software and tech communities.”
2D BARCODE
LEARNING CENTRE
The other part of the equation is education.
“Earlier this year, we launched our 2D Barcode Learning Centre, which built onto the original barcoding educational tool we’d already developed.”
The learning centre, available on the Matthews website, breaks down 2D barcodes by both application and industry, and has information from the basic through to the complex.
“If you’re not sure what an application identifier is for instance, well, that’s in there in a simple video. Looking for
“ While initially aimed at the fresh produce and the food and beverage manufacturing sectors as a platform, iDSnet Cloud has turned out to be a great Australian success story in how to launch a freemium SaaS product into the B2B category.”
IDSNET CLOUD
Firstly, creating the right tools. In 2020, the coding and labelling specialist launched iDSnet Cloud.
While initially aimed at the fresh produce and the food and beverage manufacturing sectors as a platform, iDSnet Cloud has turned out to be a great Australian success story in how to launch a freemium SaaS product into the B2B category.
“We launched iDSnet Cloud after around 18 months of development and testing with GS1 Australia and major
manufacturing industry as ‘forever free’. It means we’re truly meeting our aims.”
Dingley and the Matthews team were chuffed to find out the iDSnet Cloud solution tool was a finalist in this year’s APPMA Awards of Excellence at AUSPACK.
“The APPMA Community Contribution category had a very worthy winner, but the whole team was proud of the fact we were a finalist. It also meant Matthews was recognised for our wider industry aims.
information on getting started in 2D codes? That’s in there too. Like we did with the original Barcode Learning Centre, we collated the questions we were asked the most and used that as a guide to prepare educational information on what people are looking for. It’s freely available for anyone, not just Matthews’ customers.”
And he knows it’s being used.
“We know we have major supermarkets advising their suppliers who are having challenges with labelling to use Matthews’ Barcode Learning
Centres. Last week in a meeting with one retailer they said they were noticing changes, with a reduction in labelling errors into their DC. They’re very happy for the support in reducing labelling errors –
and supply chain labelling errors in particular, with pallet SSCC labels.”
COMMUNITY VALUE
Dingley says the fact both the 2D Barcode Learning Centre and the Barcode Learning Centre, along with iDSnet
14 | Food&Drink business | August 2022 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au