S8 Ep9: Unlocking Supply Chain Efficiencies with Data Standards with Liz Sertl
“It's a big undertaking when you start thinking about data and how you want it to move. But that foundational layer of data and getting that right internally is the first step whether you're a small business, or whether you're a large business.” —Liz Sertl
Supply chain visibility refers to the ability to access accurate and real-time data across all processes within the supply chain, from raw material sourcing to the final delivery to the consumer. This allows them to proactively address issues and inefficiencies, better manage risks and disruptions, and meet evolving customer demands. When implemented effectively, visibility can help reduce costs, improve on-time delivery rates, strengthen customer relationships, and boost overall supply chain resiliency.
This week, we hear from Liz Sertl, a seasoned supply chain leader passionate about enabling efficient and sustainable commerce through global standards. As Senior Director of Supply Chain Visibility at GS1 US, she's helping businesses of all sizes streamline operations and future-proof for compliance using foundational data standards.
Listen in as Liz pulls back the curtain on the real-world impact of clean, shared supply chain data. Justine and Liz also discuss how even the smallest operations can start reaping rewards today, tips for getting supply chain-savvy without breaking the bank, food safety regulations every business needs to address, the simplest path to competitive advantage, and much more.
Connect with Liz:
Liz Sertl is the Senior Director of Supply Chain Visibility at GS1 US. She has over 15 years of experience in supply chain management and data quality in the consumer packaged goods industry, having previously worked at Anheuser-Busch and Coca-Cola. Liz is passionate about enabling efficient and interoperable supply chains through the use of global standards. At GS1 US, she leads initiatives to promote supply chain visibility and data sharing across industries. Liz enjoys educating others on how foundational standards can drive impactful results for businesses of all sizes. In her role, she aims to increase awareness of key issues like food safety compliance and sustainability in the supply chain.
Connect with GS1 US:
Episode Highlights:
01:42 Supply Chain Efficiency and Data Quality
06:22 The GS1 Standard for Small Businesses
10:43 Supply Chain Tech and Its Impact on Businesses
14:47 Food Safety and Visibility
Tweets:
Supply chain visibility is the name of the game! From small biz efficiencies to food safety compliance, uncover how data standards are transforming supply chains with @jreichman and Liz Sertl, the Senior Director of Supply Chain Visibility at @gs1_us. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Season8 #GS1US #DataStandards #datamanagement #foodtraceability #rfid #barcode #logistics #datasolutions
Inspirational Quotes:
04:48 “By having good foundational data and taking inventory of your products, it can enable all of these other things. It doesn't have to be as mundane as master data, but enable forward-thinking use cases.” Liz Sertl
07:51 “It's a big undertaking when you start thinking about data and how you want it to move. But that foundational layer of data and getting that right internally is the first step whether you're a small business, or whether you're a large business.” —Liz Sertl
10:04 “Thinking through the use cases and how many identifiers is a really good practice to get into so you're not limiting yourself.” —Liz Sertl
13:28 “Understand what information you have because there's a lot of power in the data.” —Liz Sertl
16:15 “There is a lack of awareness and understanding right now in the industry of who and how needs to be aware of this regulation and how to comply.” —Liz Sertl
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good morning, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. With me today is Liz Sertl from GS1 US. It's so great to meet you. I'm glad that we got through all the trials and tribulations of getting online. But now that we're here, I'm excited for us. I just want to say to you. Second, I'd love for you to just introduce yourself, your name, your title and what you do so that our guests that are watching or listening can know who exactly we're talking about.
Liz Sertl: Thanks for having me, Justine. I'm so excited to be here. So again, my name is Liz Sertl with GS1 US, Senior Director of Supply Chain Visibility. For those of you who aren't necessarily aware of GS1 US, I promise that each and every one of you interact with GS1 standards on a daily basis, because the barcode that enables point of sale scanning at your grocery store is a Gs1 standard. So when I'm in a room and I'm like, hey, who knows about GS1 standards? I get blank stares. And like, what do you do? So we have a global standard that enables supply chain resiliency and all of these great things, including being able to buy food at the grocery store.
Justine Reichman: I never do that, and I love that too. I love that you share that with everyone so that they feel like they know exactly what we're talking about and how accessible that is. And it's something that we use, we may not have known what that was called, though. So appreciate sharing. Tell me a little about your speciality and your background.
Liz Sertl: I have spent my background in a CPG company. I worked at both Anheuser Busch and Coca Cola from the master data side. So how important it is to have that really good foundational data within your four walls to enable the sharing of the data with your trading partners? So I've spent time in both of those really big CPG companies and switched over to GS1 about five years ago, because I have this passion for enabling supply chains to speak in an interoperable way. Because it just takes so much of that manual work out so that we can spend more value added time on things that actually make a difference not trading spreadsheets, or emails, or phone calls.
Justine Reichman: It sounds smart to me, and more efficient. So I'm curious, what drew you to working specifically in the supply chain?
Liz Sertl: So I think that by spending time in the industry, me specifically, I spent a lot of time in the food space. And when you see all of the trials and tribulations that in my case data could really cause angst. How do we get that data to be cleaner and more efficient? And then you're able, like I said earlier, to exchange that data. But it's not just information like a product description, weights and dimensions. It also can be shipping information. And this gets to your question just at the end of the supply chain. Because when you have trading partners sending product pallets from one location to the next location, they can exchange that information with an advanced ship notice. There is no test on all of these terms that I'm spewing out, but they can send that information. I have X number of items on this pallet. They send that information electronically at the receiving dock or even prior. You can scan that barcode, and it says I have 100 cases of this product. And then there can be that exception based delivery process and receiving process. It just makes this supply chain so much more efficient, and takes the manual processes out. So I kind of fell into the supply chain from the back because I spent so much time mastering data. And I find that visiting stores and restaurants. So really cool because that's where the rubber meets the road. I could see how these standards can plug, play and make things easier.
Justine Reichman: That's great. And I think it's gonna be really useful for people to better understand what that means for them. And I'd love for you to share any example of the greatest impact you've seen maybe by having access to this.
“By having good foundational data and taking inventory of your products, it can enable all of these other things. It doesn't have to be as mundane as master data, but enable forward-thinking use cases.” Liz Sertl
Liz Sertl: I'm gonna give you a two pronged answer. The first is when I was working in industry by having really good foundational data and taking inventory of your products. So knowing what products you have, what the database system is that you can and put those in. And having a data quality governance program by going back to the very basics and saying, I need to know the weights and dimensions of this. By doing that and system wide, we were able to save truck utilizations. We were able to get additional pallets onto a truck because our weights were wrong. And so that efficiency is really cool. Another piece that's kind of forward thinking now is the 2D barcode. So when I say 2D barcode, most people think QR code. So we're all really familiar now with the QR code. And it's a barcode that can hold additional information. And so there's initiatives happening, and one is called Sunrise 2027 where retailers are going to be able to scan a 2D barcode at point of sale just like they scan that normal line barcode today and grab that product information. But also, they will be able to get expiry information. They could get a lot of batches if that's incorporated. Consumers can have recipes, or what products life cycle that the bag of lettuce that they had. So by using this foundation of standards, it can enable all of these other things. So it just doesn't have to be as mundane as master data, but it can also enable these kinds of forward thinking use cases too.
Justine Reichman: Talk to me a little bit about the integration of this, whether you're a small company or a large company. And what does that look like?
Liz Sertl: That's a great question. Because of some of the work that's going on in the industry now, we have teeny tiny organisations that are looking to start incorporating standards, and then we have very large organisations that are just starting to incorporate them. First, I think the baseline is, what the heck do you have in your systems? Understanding what kind of information you have, and how you want to incorporate the GS1 standards in there. So the very simple first step is a GTIN, a Global Trade Item Number. That is, I am a can of water, and I am owned by brand owner X. And you can get these GTINs, you license a prefix so that you can buy one. Or if you have a larger supply chain, you can buy, it's called a prefix, we have nothing to do with this at this point. It's your own business. They would license a prefix and be able to enumerate X number of these GTINs. You can also then enumerate global location numbers. I won't even go there. But many of the systems that are in place today as we are working with solution providers too are partners in this, because it's a big undertaking when you start thinking about how data is housed, and how you want it to move. But I think that that foundational layer of data and getting that right internally is the first step, whether you're a small business, or whether you're a large business.
“It's a big undertaking when you start thinking about data and how you want it to move. But that foundational layer of data and getting that right internally is the first step whether you're a small business, or whether you're a large business.” —Liz Sertl
Justine Reichman: Incorporating this for a small business, how cumbersome is it for them? You have a small team, you're really maxed out on everything you're doing. And maybe you're even scrappy at the moment because you're investing in your own business, or you've got limited resources. Is this something that is accessible to them?
Liz Sertl: It is. And it's really cool to see how they're incorporating the standards. Because really, the standard is a skew number. So everybody has to have a product description. And this is just enabling a product description or that number to be interoperable up and down the supply chain. So by getting that information, you can put that Global Trade Item Number into a spreadsheet. We're not talking about sophistication. It doesn't have to go to the next level until organisations are ready. So it really can be as simple as obtaining one GTIN. It's available in the GS1 US website, and then incorporates that throughout your business. It does not have to be difficult or cumbersome at all.
Justine Reichman: Okay. Are there any costs associated?
Liz Sertl: There are costs. It can be anywhere from one GTIN for $30, all the way up to licensing a 100,000. And all that information is out there. But it's really based on your need and your use case. Because small businesses while they're small, I am sure that there are folks that really have this cool mindset of growing the business. And so thinking about that, there's tools on the website that say, okay, I have two products now, and I have a hierarchy of a bottle case. And that's it. So in that, I have a very small need, but I want to scale. And so thinking through the use cases, and how many identifiers is a really good practice to kind of get into. You're not limiting yourself.
Justine Reichman: And so GS1 in terms of what they're offering today and what they're looking to offer going forward, what does that path look like? What kind of revolutionary things are they looking to include going forward?
Liz Sertl: There's a lot of really cool work that's going on. And let me just preface all of this by GS1 US and the GS1 standards are organisations that are neutral and not for profit. We license these numbers to enable the industry to make use of the standards. Other than that, there are solution providers that bring this to life, and the businesses that bring it to life. But like you said, there are some really cool things like this 2D Barcode that is unlocking so many use cases, like sustainability, consumer engagement efficiencies in the supply chain because you can do a much more targeted recall. If you think back to spinach or romaine, everybody's sick of hearing it. But instead of an entire category having to come off the shelf, if you can envision a time when you can scan a barcode and say, I was made in Yuma. And the problem is not in Yuma that can stay, and then sharing that story with the consumer so that they don't make the assumption that all lettuce is bad. And so there's so many new use cases that the food industry is getting behind. Another one is, and you may laugh at me, RFID is making a comeback. So RFID, Radio Frequency Identification, is very heavily being used in the apparel segment. So if you go to a store and buy clothes, there is a high likelihood that there's going to be an RFID tag to help them with inventory so that they don't have to count every shirt or every pair of pants. But instead, they can scan that area where the display is, and get all this information back. The food sectors are coming around again. So it was popular in the early 2000's, and it's coming back to help inventory and turns by taking that manual process out of the back room in the storage room. So that's another technology, while not new, is really making a comeback right now.
“Thinking through the use cases and how many identifiers is a really good practice to get into so you're not limiting yourself.” —Liz Sertl
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. I'm curious about, you have all these different people and businesses that are using this. What is the most important thing someone could do in terms of supply chain to create the greatest impact?
Liz Sertl: Get involved. I know that's probably cliche. But when we start talking about the standards, once you start using them, and if you're selling at a grocery store, you're using the standard. So how do you leverage that investment? So we have workgroups industry talk to each other, talk to solution providers, talk to your peers, talk to competitors. That was one of the ways that I learned so much. It's getting into these peer groups, because none of the problems that we're all facing are unique. So how do you not create the wheel and use some of those best practices together? The other thing I think I would say is really, whether you're small, or medium, or big, really understand what information you have. Because there's a lot of power in the data that is already within your four walls, whether it be sharing it externally, or keeping that internally and talking about how to better rotate inventory or stock for instance.
Justine Reichman: I think that's a great tip for folks that are looking to make an impact and have it make a difference within their organisations. And that seems pretty user friendly and accessible to them, so I appreciate you sharing that. So I listened to what you're doing, and I hear about all these different things. I'm wondering, are there any hard hitting statistics that you could share in regards to individual businesses that incorporate this into their supply chain, and how it impacts them?
Liz Sertl: So there are case studies that have been done, and I don't have them at the tip of my fingers. But there are case studies that we have out on the website, and I can share links with you all that give hard statistics around labor savings, cost avoidance by being able to know that data. I had used the example of truck build out, but there are definitely use cases out there that we can share that can help around that story.
Justine Reichman: That would be great. And so if people wanted to go read about those or learn about those, what's the best place for them to find them?
Liz Sertl: So on our website, gs1us.org, there are all of our case studies, food safety pages, supply chain visibility information, and they can dig into that specific niche that they want to learn about. And it really gives easy to understand snippets because this can be daunting. And so it's really easy to understand nuggets of how businesses incorporated this kind of work and gained benefit from it.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. I'm curious though, on a personal level, I know about GS1, what's there, and what you share, and their goals and objectives are. But as it relates to you and your role and what you hope to achieve, whether it's there or elsewhere, what's the bigger goal for you?
“There is a lack of awareness and understanding right now in the industry of who and how needs to be aware of this regulation and how to comply.” —Liz Sertl
Liz Sertl: So it is this amazing feeling when I am speaking to a group of people, especially when you're in person. Because then, you can really see the light bulbs go on about how using something as simple as the information encoded on a barcode that we all see day to day can enable this amazing streamline process. And the topic that's top of mind today that we talk to most people about is FSMA 204, which is the Food Safety Modernization Act. There is a lack of awareness and understanding right now in the industry of who and how needs to be aware of this regulation and how to comply. And the date of compliance is January of 2026. And I think that when I look at a group of people and share very basic information, because I'm no expert in all this regulatory stuff. But when I start sharing, you're already using the standard. And by doing this, you already have this investment. You can do X, Y, and Z to get ready for FSMA. Watching that light bulb, it is so cool to help people and learn what opportunities they have, and how to get them on that road whether it's compliance, or whether it's sustainability, or whether it's recall. It's just really cool to help people in the space that I used to be on a day to day and help share that information. It's really fun.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. I know that you are knee deep in this whole supply chain, and you must know a ton of resources. And as a community that wants to support our founders, researchers and people building a better for you food business, are there any additional resources that you might recommend to help people within this space?
Liz Sertl: Absolutely. So obviously, our website produced traceability initiative is another website and group that I would definitely take a look at. It's a big group of produce suppliers, but also retail that have come together to put some standards to coalesce around that produce sector. There's also these different industry groups, whether it's FMI, whether it's National Fisheries Institute, IDDBA from a Dairy Deli Bakery perspective, all of these associations are really trying to help their members with efficient supply chains. And right now, efficient supply chains for these specific audiences is FSMA 204. And I would say that there's a ton of resources that we all are working on to help our members. And the really cool thing is all these associations are also working together. So I work with NFI, PTI, FMI and all of the different organizations so that we can really get the word out. So that it's not as daunting of a process.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thank you so much for your time today for sharing those resources, learning about you and what motivates you to be in this area. It's a great resource to our community. I really appreciate all the nuggets and the resources that you share with us. Thank you so much.
Liz Sertl: Absolutely. Thank you.
Justine Reichman: My pleasure. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in.
