United Nations Standard Product and Services
Code® (UNSPSC®) Position Statement
Significant benefits are attainable today in the Australian Digital Health Supply Chain. Both
Australian and international reports1 quantify financial benefits and improved health supply
chain outcomes when the correct foundations are established for industry stakeholders.
The national standardisation of master data is one area identified by the industry where there
is an unnecessary duplication of effort. By introducing standards to improve the industry’s
ability to ‘talk the same language’, collaboration will increase and the cost of effort forstakeholders will decrease.
The United Nations Standard Product and Services Code (UNSPSC) is one of the key coding
systems used by procurement and supply chain management professionals across Australia.
Unfortunately, its use across the healthcare industry is currently fragmented. Greater nationalalignment is required to remove this fragmentation, and unlock national benefits.
The UNSPSC is a four-level hierarchical set of product categories used by procurement andsupply chain partners worldwide to classify their products and services. Inconsistent use ofUNSPSC versions leads to inconsistent coding, and additional administrative effort. Theprimary users of UNSPSC codes in Australia have adopted UNSPSC codes at varying levels of
the taxonomy for use in tendering and contracting. Future integration of the codeset into
systems and processes will enable improved business and inventory analytics.
Following a review of UNSPSC versions used across the healthcare industry, stakeholders have
ratified that all four levels of the UNSPSC version 19 taxonomy (released July 2016)
should be adopted . This recommendation recognises the significant effort by the UNSPSC
Organisation to increase the richness of healthcare segments within the UNSPSC taxonomy.
It is acknowledged that there is a broad range of other codesets in the market, and thedecision to use a specific codeset needs to be based on the purpose of the analysis required.
This position statement seeks only to confirm agreement on the use of a single version of theUNSPSC codeset for the Australian healthcare industry.
New versions of the UNSPSC will be considered annually in order to minimise the impact of theadministrative change on stakeholders.
Where UNSPSC codes are requested, industry will now transition to requiring version 19 aspart of their procurement and supply chain processes.
To endorse this industry position, the following stakeholders have confirmed their support.

Paul Broadbridge
Chief Digital Supply Chain Officer

1Healthcare Data Crunch Report, Mckinsey Strength in Unity

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Industry Signatories to UNSPSC Position Statement

Rosemary Kennedy
Executive Director Business and Infrastructure

Rob Clifton-Steele
CEO & Managing Director

Elaine Ko
Chief Executive

Sarah Lankshear
Operations Manager - Master Data & Analysis

Will Monaghan
Acting Chief Procurement Officer
and General Manger Supply Chain

Julie Jenkins
Chief Procurement Officer

Andrew PotterGroup Inventory ManagerCatherine Koetz
Industry Manager - Healthcare

Warwick Potts
Supply Operations Manager

Mandeep Sodhi
eBusiness Manager

Rod Treadwell
Director Procurement, Healthshare NSW

Quinton SwannActing Executive Director andChief Procurement OfficerMartin Eley
National BusinessManager

Ged Halstead
Chief Information Officer

Bang Chau
Vice President International
Business Development

Megan Main
Chief Executive

If you would like to be included as an industry signatory please email supplychain@digitalhealth.gov.au2 of 2