The Global Language of Business

Visibility Verification ofJapanese Sake Supply
Chain
Demonstrated how EPCIS is efficient
Public awareness of food safety and theimportance of corporate reporting anddisclosure are increasing throughout theworld.
Why is visibility important?
Information that ensures safety and security enhances
product value. That is why it is important to develop anefficient and effective quality control system thatenables consumers, distributors and producers to track
and trace information at every stage of production anddistribution, including the monitoring of temperatureand other conditions. Counterfeiting and fraud havebecome a major social problem that is affecting
international distribution as well. The spread of illegal
and inferior products damages the reputation ofJapanese brands and poses a serious threat to foodsafety and security. Various technologies, including
holography, have been developed to identify authenticproducts, but this has simply led to a rise in hologram
counterfeiting.
The battle against piracy is looking more and more likea cat-and-mouse game. The situation calls for a newtechnology that allows for supply chain visibility,
enabling producers, distributors and retailers to track
and identify products at every stage of the supply chain.
Visibility is the key to combating counterfeiting.

EPCIS is a standard
specification for supply
chain visibility. It
specifies the structure
and meaning for visibility
data (data recording
events such as where a
product is and where it
has been) for storing on
a server and sharing
among users. By
providing a standard
data format, EPCIS
allows visibility data on
servers to be shared andunderstood between
different enterprises.

Verification test
Each product has anindividual EPC (RFID) tag.
This verification test
involves reading theproduct's tag when it
arrives at specific points inthe supply chain. This
information is sent to thecomputer server toconfirm the identity andlocation of the product.
Any product that cannot
be identified through thissystem can be considered
to be a counterfeit.

We conducted verification test
involving many supply chain
stakeholders from Japan to Thailand
focusing on GS1 keys and EPCIS.
Explanation of diagram

During the test, the product's EPC tag (SGTINstored) was first read at the time of shipmentfrom the sake brewery. It was read again uponreceipt and delivery by distributors and by theagent in Thailand to record the exact date andtime it passed through each stage of the supply
chain. If a product cannot be identified on theserver, it has not gone through the proper
channels and is therefore counterfeit. This makes
it possible to identify counterfeit products andprevent them from being sold at retailers orserved at restaurants.

①Sake brewery

To prevent attempts to switch bottle contents andto ensure traceability from the point of shipment,
the bottles were sealed with EPC tags embeddedin the caps. The bottles were individually boxed
and packaged in an outer box with a temperature
data logger. On shipment, the EPC tag on theouter box was linked to the EPC tags on thebottles and to the invoice number. The scanlocation (GLN), shipment date and time werethen uploaded to the computer (cloud) server.

②Transporter (receipt)

The shipment from the Sake brewery wasdelivered to a warehouse near Narita
International Airport.

On arrival, the EPC tag on the outer box was readand the scanning location, reception date and time
were uploaded to the computer server. As thiswas a verification trial some outer boxes wereopened, and the tags on some individual bottles
were intentionally damaged and shipped in thiscondition.

③Transporter (shipment)

Once the freight carrier to Thailand had been
confirmed and an air waybill issued, the productwas shipped from the warehouse near Narita
Airport. The EPC tags were once again read andthe scanning location, shipment date and time
uploaded to the computer server. For thisverification trial, we decided on airfreighttransport to minimize the overall transit time.

④Distributor
On arrival at the airport in Thailand, the Thai
agent or distributor received the shipment andstored it in the company owned warehouse. TheEPC tags were read and the scanning location,
storage date and time were uploaded to thecomputer server along with the temperature data.

⑤Restaurants/retailers
In addition to an EPC tag, each bottle has a QR
code on its label. Scanning this code with asmartphone provides access to a webpage withinformation about the supply chain. The webpage
has links to a Facebook page for further details
and to provide the sake brewery with feedback on
its product.

⑥Consumers
Consumers accessed various information with theQR code and enjoyed their Sake.

GS1 Japan

Place Canada, 7-3-37 Akasaka Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052, JAPANT +81 (0)3 5414 8570 l E n-mama@gs1jp.org l http://www.dsri.jp/Printed in JAPAN 2016/02/02