Barcodes and related standards have accompanied the Polish process of political and economic transformation from the very beginning. As early as 1988, efforts were made to include Poland in EAN International. The creation of an organizational, legal, and technical system for its implementation and dissemination in Poland was entrusted to the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing in Poznań. Since 1990, ILiM served as the national organization EAN Poland (now GS1 Poland). As of June 1, 2016, GS1 Poland became a separate foundation. What is the reason for this, and what changes does it bring?
Aleksander Niemczyk, President of the GS1 Poland Foundation
The changes are a consequence of implementing a new strategy adopted by the global GS1 organization. It requires full independence of national organizations. Therefore, the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing established the Foundation, which has been acting as the national GS1 organization in Poland for several weeks. The Foundation’s work is supervised by the GS1 Poland Council, ten of whose seventeen members were elected by GS1 System Participants in democratic elections. The Council includes representatives of companies from the manufacturing and retail sectors, solution and service providers, as well as representatives of the scientific community. The activities of the GS1 Poland Foundation are managed by the Management Board consisting of: Aleksander Niemczyk – President of the Management Board and Elżbieta Hałas – Member of the Management Board. Currently, the Management Board’s particular concern is completing all necessary organizational changes. GS1 System participants should not feel this. Future plans are ambitious and focused on supporting companies in achieving benefits from participating in the GS1 System. The Foundation will work closely with the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing, which remains a substantive partner. Thanks to this, it will be possible to draw on the Institute’s experience resulting from 25 years of implementing the GS1 Standard in improving logistics and developing the e-economy. A special role is played by the use of automatic identification (barcodes, RFID) and electronic exchange of product information and documents.