The Product Master Data Catalogue: A Unique OSA DC Foundation
Tom is allergic to nuts and beans, and strictly limits his consumption of these complex carbohydrates, carefully analyzing all product labels before buying. A Harvard study concluded over 15 million people visit the emergency room annually because of allergic reactions to food. About 1.0 % of them have a peanut allergy, which can vary from mild form to severe anaphylaxis. Tom, as well as other allergic people, seriously suffer from the lack of a centralized mechanism allowing consolidation and analysis of complete information and details about purchased and delivered products. They are trapped by the total chaos of ineffective data processing and storage, and in some cases it’s a matter of life and death.
A real example of how the absence of detailed product information can have a deadly effect on human health occurred this year, on September 24. A 15-year old girl ended up at a hospital in Nice after eating a baguette at the airport before her flight. The court determined the food contained sesame seeds, to which the victim was allergic, but on the package, this ingredient was not listed. This abysmal reality makes us think about the importance of a single point where we can find all necessary properties of each product, going much further than a title or a brand.
What’s more, businesses fall into the pit of this flawed system: There is a direct interdependence between data processing issues and mistakes in overall business planning, under and overstocking, messes in mutual settlements between manufacturers and retailers, outdated product databases in different traditional and online stores, and other working issues. In terms of numbers, the total effect caused by out-of-stocks, overstocks and avertable returns alone adds up to 11.7% revenue loss or around $1.75 trillion per year.
With this in mind, the OSA DC company is implementing a unique tool, which is the foundation of their whole system, and on which all the product information relies. The Product Master Data Catalogue is to be widely used by the supply chain participants and by regular consumers like Tom through his personal assistant. Let us explain how.
The Omniscient Catalogue: Technology Explained
OSA DC has seemed to do the impossible. In one electronic service, they have put together millions of values belonging to goods registered in the system.The OSA DC catalogue will be equipped with an advanced image recognition technology based on synthetic data. Without the need to take product photos, mark them up, and train neural networks to recognize products by picture, the system forms a computer 3D model of a product on the basis of the sweep of the package, then trains the neurons in different angles, lighting, and finally, recognizes the image with 95+% degree of assurance. Each image is tagged with the item’s product identifier and in-store or supply chain coordinates. This technical approach saves time when identifying a required product on the shelf and allows control of the performance of store personnel and, in the future, of the entire supply chain and of the OSA DC service instructions via the format of e-reporting.
A Wide Range Of Applications
When developing the Product Master Catalogue, the OSA DS team is focusing on improvement of the way retailers, consumers, and suppliers deal with product data processing and storage. Thus, their tool has two directional purposes:
Safe And Effective Purchases For Consumers
Since the catalogue is a unique source for all existing information about each in-store unit, buyers are able to analyze important details on purchased products including ingredients, expiration date, and special notes and indicators through their personal assistants. The process of goods identification is lightning fast due to the innovative image recognition technology based on 3D modeling and synthetic data.
Product Data Catalog is enriched with attributes specific to a product’s performance characteristics. These characteristics can be objective, subjective, relative, or contextual and allow to link a product to the usage experiences of each individual consumer.
For example, consumers or their personal digital assistants can ensure that their chosen product:
1. Does not contain salt or any other specified ingredient.
2. Has similar product preferences of other shoppers. Taking into account the required weight or volume of the chosen product, personal digital assistants can determine the most efficient logistics.
2) Data Synchronization For Retailers & Suppliers
Every supermarket sells an average 20–100 thousand goods. How can these products be analyzed?
OSA DC invention puts things in order. In this case, the catalogue plays the role of the “benchmark” for a system of names and measurements of goods in the entire supply chain. It merges various product names into a single, unified identifier. Thus, under the same title, you can easily track and analyze all products supplied, via a convenient and clear interface.
Fantastic Combo
OSA DC has managed to prove despite numerous gaps and flaws in the modern retail system, the unique combination of technical innovation and creative minds is able to move the industry progress at a rapid pace, especially with a powerful foundation as the Product Master Data Catalogue. This is not only about the shopping revolution; this is also about business prosperity and the health of a nation.
