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2005 Sunrise: A change in barcode standards

By Sarah Kimmel
Monday, September 29, 2003

      A new initiative advises that companies need to prepare themselves for changes in barcode standards, specifically by adding support for a greater number of digits. The initiative, called 2005 Sunrise, will offer greater opportunities to new companies and companies outside North America, as well as the retailers that sell their products.

      “Companies should be prepared to increase their barcode support to include EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols, in addition to UPC. This is voluntary, but if you choose to ignore this and your competitor doesn’t, you are at a competitive disadvantage,” says Al Garton, director of channel marketing for general merchandise, Uniform Code Council (UCC), Lawrenceville, NJ.

      What is 2005 Sunrise? Much like Universal Product Code (UPC) barcodes are used to identify retail merchandise in North America, EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols are used outside North America. While the 12-digit UPC system is not going away, retailers are asked to add point-of-sale scanning and processing support for the EAN System by the recommended date of January 1, 2005.

      “You may be able to scan a 13-digit number, but once the scanner passes the data to the backend, your system won’t know what to do with the 13th digit. This could affect the customer service process, starting with the slowing down of the supply chain. One way or another, there will be a price to pay if you stay at a maximum of 13 digits,” says Garton.

      The changing face of barcode standards is a reaction to a growing international marketplace. Some primary drivers behind 2005 Sunrise are:

      Reason #1: High re-labeling costs. Since retail products from around the world are identified with EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols (with the exception of those in the United States and Canada), manufacturers must re-label products with a 12-digit UPC symbol in order to sell them in North America. This results in increased expenses and a delay in getting the products to market.

      Reason #2: New companies will be given EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols. After January 1, 2005, the number of products with EAN symbols are expected to increase quickly because UCC will no longer issue UCC Company Prefixes to new companies outside the United States and Canada. Therefore, these companies (and anyone who wants to distribute their products) must be EAN-compliant.

      Reason #3: Changes to Company Prefixes. Historically, Company Prefixes have been issued as six-digit numbers. As of March 1, 2000, UCC has assigned Company Prefixes that vary from six to 10 digits. Company Prefixes encoded in EAN-8 and EAN-13 symbols also vary in length. If your systems or applications assume all Company Prefixes are six-digit numbers, items may not be processed correctly.

      Also, while UCC Company Prefixes for UPC symbols traditionally begin with a 0 (zero), UCC has expanded the prefixes to include lead digits of 1, 8, and 9. Companies that are using these lead numbers in their internal systems take the chance of clashing with valid symbols assigned to other companies and are asked to halt the practice of internal parsing.

Look to the future: 14-digit coding

      Since the road to 2005 Sunrise compliance will involve many system changes, UCC asks companies to also consider future practices so that they may prepare themselves now. “The recommendation is that companies do not stop at 13 digits. If you have to change to 13 digits, go to 14. Then you are covered for the future,” says Garton.

      Here are some future technologies and UCC initiatives that will require shops to have support for 14 digits:

      Reduced Space Symbology (RSS) allows barcode marking for smaller items that previously could not be marked with a UPC symbol. UCC encourages companies that are already making changes to become 2005 Sunrise compliant to also allow support for RSS technology.

      Data synchronization using the GLOBALregistry of UCCnet requires the identification of products at all levels of packaging, such as in cases and palettes (IW 11/8/02). A 14th digit is used in order to identify these units of product.

      Global Trade Item Numbers (GTIN) compliance is the umbrella term for the ability to support 8, 12, 13, and 14-digit data structures. 2005 Sunrise compliance is required for GTIN compliance, and GTIN compliance is required to use RSS symbols or for participation in the GLOBALregistry.

      For more information on 2005 Sunrise or UCC, see www.uc-council.org/
ean_ucc_system/stnds_and_tech/2005_sunrise.html.

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