Hewlett-Packard and the Canadian arm of a global standards organization today rolled out a cloud-based service said to help food and beverage, toy, and pharmaceuticals manufacturers and their supply chain partners more efficiently conduct product recalls.
The service, a collaboration between HP and the GS1 non-profit supply chain standards organization, is being deployed initially for food and beverage manufacturers in Canada. It will later be deployed in other countries, said Mick Keys, HP’s senior architect for business critical systems, in an interview with Manufacturing Executive.
The offering comes at a time when regulators and manufacturers are becoming more concerned about improving the efficiency and reducing the costs associated with product recalls. Over the past few months, manufacturers have been forced to recall food products ranging from ground beef to alfalfa sprouts. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act to require more frequent inspections of food plants and the implementation by manufacturers of detailed food safety plans.
The new GS1 Canada Product Recall service is based on Web-based cloud computing infrastructure from HP and traceability and recall applications from GS1. Using the GS1 standards, which describe how manufacturers and their supply chain partners exchange product information and documents, the service will provide real-time product recall information and standardize recall communication forms and processes. The system also provides a traceable security and audit trail pertaining to product and recall information.
Manufacturers will be able to enter product information into the system, allowing retailers and others in multi-tier supply networks to better keep track of products as they move through the supply chain, said Rebecca Lawson, HP’s director of worldwide cloud initiatives. Without such a cloud-based service, she said, manufacturers and their supply chain partners have been forced to establish dedicated communication connections to exchange information. Managing those connections and the information they generate has been a challenge, she said.
The GS1 Canada Product Recall service will allow manufacturers to publish product information. Their supply chain partners, after passing through security and authentication services, can then subscribe to the information.
Manufacturers and their supply chain partners will pay for the service on a subscription basis. Charges will be based on sales levels and will range from $200 to $1,500 per month.
“The data around food traceability and recall is there,” Lawson said. “The problem has been accessing it in a way that can answer questions like: Where did those peanuts come from, and what shelves are they sitting on?”
The product recall application is the first deployed on what HP calls its cloud computing platform for manufacturers. The company hopes to deploy other manufacturing applications on the platform, targeting information about pharmaceuticals, toys, and hazardous materials, HP’s Keys said.
The GS1 Canada Product Recall service is currently undergoing pilot testing involving food manufacturers and retailers. After a review of the results, live deployment is expected in October, said Eileen MacDonald, GS1 Canada’s chief operating officer.
Similar cloud-based services for Canadian toy manufacturers are expected to be deployed in the first quarter of next year, and services for pharmaceuticals manufacturers will be rolled out in the second quarter.
As many as 3,500 Canadian companies are expected to use the system, according to MacDonald. That estimate is based on the number of Canadian companies currently registered to use other GS1 standards, such as bar codes, MacDonald said.
HP was selected as the cloud infrastructure provider for the project after an open request-for-proposal process, MacDonald said. The company demonstrated the ability to provide a robust and scalable cloud infrastructure, she said.