Hopefully, you were able to join this week’s webinar with Tracy Nasarenko from GS1 and Systech’s own Joe Lipari, but if you missed it, let me catch you up and share some key takeaways.  

For those who are not familiar, GS1 (Global Standards 1) is an international standards organization that brings industry leaders, government, regulators, academia and associations together to develop standards-based solutions to address the challenges of data exchange. GS1 standards are the most widely used system of standards in the world.  

During the webinar, Tracy and Joe talked about the DSCSA and the value of implementing standards beyond compliance. There were several polls conducted in real time with the audience about the DSCSA, traceability and standards. For example, the audience was asked: 

What percentage of your connections are currently exchanging data using GS1 implementation guidelines standard EPCIS 1.2?  

To this question, 42% of the audience replied that they were unsure and 11% stated that less than 25% of their connections were exchanging data using EPCIS 1.2. What this tells us is that although we are well into the stabilization period, much work still needs to be done to reach true interoperability.  

Another question was to assess their organization’s readiness in exception management and rework capabilities within the pharmaceutical supply chain.  

How well-prepared are you to handle unforeseen disruptions or deviations from standard processes? 

To this question 50% said they were not well prepared.  

The key to preparing for exceptions handling and addressing issues WHEN—not if—they arise is to partner with the right vendors. The right vendors will help ensure you are ready to tackle these issues to avoid things like drug shortages, product quarantines and struggles with downstream trading partners. 

So, how do you scale your operations to be best equipped for all this?  

Onboarding a trusted L4, rework and exception management solution provider is critical. To learn more about Systech’s solutions, please reach out to us. 

To download the recording of this webinar, please click here.