An EPC, or Electronic Product Code, provides a unique, serialized identifier for any kind of object. Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS) is a standard for sharing EPC-related information between trading partners.

EPCIS provides capabilities to improve efficiency, security, and visibility in the global supply chain. These standards facilitate internal data capture as well as secure external sharing of information about movement and status of goods in the physical world.

Companies that handle physical goods, such as manufacturers, distributors, resellers or logistics providers, can benefit from EPCIS by cost-effectively sharing information with finer granularity of detail for better visibility and efficiency. Companies adopting EPCIS standards are leveraging the experiences and learnings of other companies that created the specifications.

Complementing the EPCIS standards is the Core Business Vocabulary (CBV) Standard which defines the “why?” parameter in EPCIS. CBV provides definitions of common business processes and disposition states that might be the result of an RFID or barcode read at various points in the supply chain or in an internal operation. The vocabulary and definitions in this standard will ensure that all parties who exchange EPCIS data using the Core Business Vocabulary will have a common understanding of that data.

Learn more about EPCIS.