Why should my organisation use the GS1 system when it has a good internal traceability system in place?

Internal traceability is necessary, but it is not enough to achieve full chain traceability. In order to have traceability from upstream to downstream, traceability systems from trading partners must be interoperable. GS1 standards provide the common language for traceability systems to be interoperable.  

Let’s take an example of a Chinese supplier exporting to New Zealand. If the supplier does not use global standards, when the New Zealander receives the goods, he has to manually capture the information into his system and to relabel them. On the other hand, if both trading partners use global standards such as GS1 standards for logistic labels or product identification, there is the direct use of the barcodes to have data at the back-end systems. This ensures traceability across the chain but also cost-savings, timeliness, data quality and overall efficiency in operational activities.