EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services) is GS1’s standard for sharing event information for a product.
The standard stores information about what happened to an object, item, or a delivery and answers the questions:
- What? – What identity does the item, or items, have that were involved in the incident?
- Where? – What is the identity of the location where the incident occurred?
- When? At what time did the incident occur?
- Why? – What business steps, such as packing, loading or goods reception, is the incident related to?
EPCIS is used in conjunction with GS1’s standard Core Business Vocabulary (CBV). CBV contains definitions of the data values that can be used to enter data structures in the EPCIS standard.
Who uses EPCIS?
EPCIS is used by companies in a variety of industries around the world to track everything from the origin and freshness of food to the authenticity of branded products or the safety of pharmaceuticals.
The benefits of EPCIS
The EPCIS standard contributes to increased visibility and traceability because applications and business systems can create and share event data both within and between companies. Users get a common view of the physical movement and status of marked items during each part of the journey through the supply chain.
For example, EPCIS event information allows you to track a delivery from manufacturer to customer, track a delivery from customer to manufacturer, and find out if a product is genuine or counterfeit.