Friday, October 25, 2013

An Important Fact about 'One-Off' GLNs

Up until recently GS1 US (and likely other GS1 organizations) offered a 'One-Off' GLN Subscription service to help organizations obtain GLNs at a reduced cost.   The key difference with the GLNs which were allocated through this service is they did not contain a Global Company Prefix specific to the organization.   On the surface this causes issues when trying to translate the 13-digit GLN Element String into its corresponding URN format, such as urn:epc:id:sgln:0614141.12345.400.

GS1 US recently stopped offering the 'One-Off' GLN and instead restructured its pricing so that companies who only needed a small number of GLNs could obtain a valid GS1 Global Company Prefix at a very reasonable price.

However, if your organization is dealing with CMO,3PL or other supply chain suppliers/partners which obtained their GLNs through the 'One-Off' subscription service then ensure you follow the rules below provided by GS1 Global:

One off GLNs are handled as though they have a 12-digit GCP.

Example 1:
“one-off” GLN: AI (414):  0312345678913
Extension:  AI (254):  none
implied 12-digit GCP:  031234567891
EPC Pure Identity URI:   urn:epc:id:sgln:031234567891..0

Example 2:
“one-off” GLN: AI (414):  4012345678918
Extension:  AI (254):  4711ekW
implied 12-digit GCP:  401234567891
EPC Pure Identity URI:   urn:epc:id:sgln:401234567891..4711ekW

As companies move into later stages of implementation these are the details which can cause frustrating issues and delays.  Ensure your serialization systems are configured properly to parse these GLNs using the rules above.   And of course reach out if you'd like any more insight....

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