What is the UCC128 label?

Written by Act Data Services, Inc. 1-800-ACT-DATA

Most supply chain EDI relationships will have many required documents. One of those documents, and probably the most common is the Advance Ship Notice. When a supplier (or vendor) gets an EDI 850 Purchase Order, the EDI 856 Advance Ship Notice is what is sent in response. If your vendor EDI relationship includes the above 856 then there is high likelihood that you will also be using the ucc 128 label. The label, also known as  the GS1 128 label, allows the customer to know what the content of the carton is before opening it by scanning the barcode on the label.

The UCC 128 can be printed in different ways and will be largely determined by your EDI software. For those with in house developed EDI might have to purchase separate barcode generators. These barcode generators can be very expensive, depending on the functional requirements. Basically you can import the information and then generate the barcode. Alternatively for users of web based internet edi, the barcode functionality will probably be built in, and require just to be printed out.

The advent of the ucc 128 label has greatly improved the speed and efficiency of the supply chain. What used to be long waits and open boxes is now just scanned barcodes and sent off the the recipients. This is a prime example of EDI can make a huge difference to the bottom line of an organization.

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Act Data is an edi outsource vendor that provides EDI solutions for retail and supplier environments.