The Industrial Supply Assn.’s numbering system for tracking made-to-order products, Custom Industrial Supply Number (CISN), has been approved by GS1, the international organization that sets supply chain standards. 

The CISN system assigns unique numbers to custom products. ISA's CISN is expected to be a major asset to distributors that sell customized products. ISA estimates that more than 40 percent of products sold by its members are made-to-order.

Having a system of unique identification numbers for those products and their locations can make for smoother business-to-business operations, explains Paula Giovannetti, ISA's director of e-Business.

“It will help eliminate cross-referencing confusion, where in one system the identification number would be different from [the number] another company would use [for a similar product],” she says. “This is even more critical with custom-made items because you obviously don't want to ship that to the wrong person. You also don't want to make too many and you don't want them just sitting on the shelves.”

Customers who order customized items should also benefit from the ISA's new item identification system, she adds.

“[The customer] now has a way of receiving it, inventorying it and giving it a name and number you both are going to use and can reference in any follow-up paper work, including invoicing,” she explains.

Emphasizing this point to supply chain customers may well be the most important step towards industry-wide adoption of the standard. Any new system such as the ISA's needs to be customer-driven and customer-demanded for it to catch on across the supply chain, Giovanetti adds.

“Part of the challenge, which I've said from day one, is that we don't have any 800-pound gorillas in this space—no Target or Wal-Mart requiring this [numbering system] as a condition for doing business,” Giovannetti says. “It's even more complicated by the fact that the big guys here are the suppliers. What are the chances that they're going to push their customers around?”

ISA's executive vice president John Buckley agrees, pointing out that in general, manufacturers have had somewhat more enthusiasm for these ideas over the years—with distributors being “more reactive than proactive on this, in general.”

“This will be driven by the customer,” Buckley says. “And it's not being demanded by the customers yet.”

Technology expert Steve Epner, founder of the industry-focused Brown Smith Wallace Consulting Group, likes the ISA's new system and says he agrees with Giovannetti and Buckley about the importance of getting customers behind these changes.

There have been various attempts at implementing standards like these in the past, he says, noting that the initial enthusiasm faded when customers weren't on board and supportive.

“All these standards are worthless unless the distributors, manufacturers and end users actually use them. That's the bottom line,” Epner says. “The real proof in the pudding will be if [they] use it.”

The origins of the ISA guidelines go back as far as 2003, according to Giovanetti. The need for a more specific system, especially given the increase in customized products, was apparent even then.

The increasing number of cross-reference files distributors were using for customized orders was becoming unmanageable, she explains. A system that would assign unique identification numbers using bar code symbols was ISA's goal.

Most ISA members already use the GS1 system of Global Trade Item Numbers and Global Location Numbers, and for commodity items this system is still the recommended method. The new ISA guidelines were drawn up taking great care not to overlap, or conflict, with the GS1 system, Giovannetti says.

“What took the longest time was [GS1] making sure that what we put in place wouldn't interfere with the legacy systems already working for global trade item numbers,” she explains.

GS1 is the leading organization focused on worldwide electronic trading standards and solutions for the global supply chain. Its system of standards is the most widely used supply chain system in the world.

“ISA had to take the Custom Industrial Supply Number through the GS1 Global Standards Management Process,” Giovannetti explains. “GS1 wanted to make sure that what currently was being used wouldn't be interfered with, or trumped by, the new system.”

The key in the weeks and months ahead is for ISA to show members how important it is to use the guideline methodology. Giovannetti emphasizes, though, that the ISA guidelines are just that—guidelines, not mandates.

“The ISA has created these guidelines that are voluntary, but we also say, 'If we all did it this way, we'd be better off,'” she explains.

Along with creating a more orderly system for tracking the sale and inventory of made-to-order products, the new ISA Guidelines may also carry an added advantage: They could serve as a boon to keeping talented workers—an ongoing concern for distributors these days, Giovannetti points out.

“We have a lot of baby boomers retiring and being replaced by [about] half as many people,” she says. “There will be more job openings than there are people. …And these are not kids looking for their 25-year watch. They'll work for a company because they want to.”

If a job's primary responsibilities include tracking down lost inventory, for example, or having to deal with an angry customer who hasn't received their customized order on time, the employees' interest in staying at that company could fade rapidly, she says.

“We can give them all kinds of monetary benefits, but the fact is, if they don't like what they're doing, [such as] spending time on the phone with screaming customers or manually trying to process an inefficient business [system], they're not going to stay. ... We have to figure out what we're going to do about that,” Giovannetti explains.

Giovannetti emphasizes that the guidelines will not eliminate jobs, but will rather be a pro-active guard against a diminishing talent pool in the years ahead.

“We're not taking jobs away from people. We're just not going to have the people to do these jobs [in the future],” she says. “These aren't the jobs [new employees] are going to want to do. So do we get smart and figure that out ahead of time, or do we wait until it is crunch time?”

This will be among the advantages of the new numbering system ISA will emphasize to members in the months ahead.

“We just need to educate people that these guidelines exist, so they know they are there and can use them,” she says. “The other is [to educate them on] the advantages of them. ... I think [attracting young workers] will be a motivating factor.”

For information on the ISA eBusiness Implementation Guidelines and the CISN, go to www.isapartners.org.