VICS plans 4 committees to begin quick response - Voluntary Inter-Industry Communications Standards Committee

Discount Store News, March 12, 1990 by Arthur Markowitz

VICS Plans 4 Committees To Begin Quick Response

TROY, Mich. -- VICS has a new mission--implementing Quick Response among the greatest number of retailers and manufacturers.

It plans to carry out this mandate by setting up four new committees. One, Marketing and Education, is to focus on developing an educational program to counter the lack of understanding that many companies have about the benefits of Quick Response and how it works.

David Carlson, K mart's senior vice president, Corporate Information Services, who has been active with VICS since its founding, said: "Surveys still show that companies don't fully appreciate the impact that QR will have in providing better service to consumers. It enables manufacturers and retailers to get goods faster and more efficiently to customers. It means shoppers can find the exact goods they want. Long range, it will result in lower prices and more productive distribution of merchandise, providing shoppers with a richer selection of items--the styles, sizes and colors they want so they buy their first choice, rather than substituting with a second choice."

VICS' new call reflects the voluntary organization's success in fulfilling its original charge: spearhead the development of Quick Response technology standards for the general merchandise field.

This effort resulted in adoption of UPC-A as the bar code identification for general merchandise (1986), ANSI X.12 established as the electronic data interchange (EDI) standard (1987) and Code 128 chosen as the shipping container coding (SCC) symbology (1988).

VICS (Voluntary Interindustry Communications Standards), formed almost four years ago as a group composed of retailers and vendors, was restructured in mid-January to carry out its new assignment. VICS will now be directed by a new 12-member board, five of whom serve on an executive committee.

The key operational change in the reorganization was the formation of a 14-member Implementation Committee to carry out VICS' new assignment. To do this, the committee is scheduled to meet March 19 and is likely to recommend setting up four other committees, each charged with a specific responsibility.

These four committees, which carry on various functions of VICS' now disbanded Steering and Technical Committees (the group's original directing and operating committees), and their likely chairman are: * Marketing and Education, headed by Thomas S. Rittenhouse, vice president and controller, Strawbridge & Clothier. * EDI Oversight Committee, headed by Paul Benchener, director, QR, Levi Strauss & Co. The Universal Code Committee (which administers UPC) is administering VICS's EDI standards. The Oversight Committee will deal with situation that don't fall with UCC's province or that require some study prior to becoming the concern of that standards organization. * Shipping Container Committee, headed by Bill Sibley, a retailing consultant who formerly was a J.P. Stevens & Co., executive. It will focus on expanding the use of Code 128, which is the least understood and deployed QR technology. * UPC Catalog Committee, co-chaired by Fred Asher, vp, MIS Services, Dayton Hudson Department Stores, and Tom Sample, vp, Information and Marketing Services, Haggar Apparel Co. Its aim is to be a resource for uses of UPC catalogs, focusing on guidelines and recommendations detailing how retailers and vendors can more effectively use a catalog.

VICS board chairman is Joseph R. Thomas, K mart's executive vice president and chief administrative officer. The secretary/treasurer is David Masket, Maindenform Inc.'s executive vice president and cfo.