EPCIS
In computer science, Electronic Product Code Information Services is a global GS1 Standard for creating and sharing visibility event data, both within and across enterprises, to enable users to gain a shared view of physical or digital objects within a relevant business context. "Objects" in the context of EPCIS typically refers to physical objects that are handled in physical steps of an overall business process involving one or more organizations. Examples of such physical objects include trade items, logistic units, returnable assets, fixed assets, physical documents, etc. “Objects” may also refer to digital objects which participate in comparable business process steps. Examples of such digital objects include digital trade items, digital documents, and so forth.
The EPCIS standard was originally conceived as part of a broader effort to enhance collaboration between trading partners by sharing of detailed information about physical or digital objects. The name EPCIS reflects the origins of this effort in the development of the Electronic Product Code. However, EPCIS does not require the use of Electronic Product Codes, nor of Radio-Frequency Identification data carriers, and as of EPCIS 1.1 does not even require instance-level identification. The EPCIS standard applies to all situations in which visibility event data is to be captured and shared, and the presence of “EPC” within the name is of historical significance only.
EPCIS 1.0 was first ratified by EPCglobal in April, 2007. At the time of ratification, over 30 companies had used the draft EPCIS standard to exchange data and collaborate with trading partners As of 2014, 24 commercial products had received certificates of compliance to the EPCIS standard from GS1. EPCIS 1.1 was ratified by GS1 in May, 2014. EPCIS 1.2 was ratified by GS1 in September, 2016.
History
In 2001, the MIT Auto-ID Center published a paper proposing the Physical Markup Language, intended as "a common 'language' for describing physical objects, processes and environments". PML was one of four components of an "intelligent infrastructure" envisioned by the Auto-ID Center, the other three components being RFID tags, the Electronic Product Code, and the Object Naming Service. As the work of the MIT Auto-ID Center was taken up by EPCglobal in 2004, the PML concept was renamed Electronic Product Code Information Services, and efforts began to create a global standard. In 2005, the first version of the EPCglobal Architecture Framework was published, which introduced EPCIS as a standard under development and showed how it related to other components of an envisioned architecture for RFID-based tracking of physical objects within supply chains.EPCIS 1.0 was first ratified by EPCglobal in April, 2007. A companion standard, the EPC Core Business Vocabulary 1.0, was ratified by EPCglobal in October, 2010. Despite the RFID-oriented origins of EPCIS, it came to be used in applications that used bar codes exclusively or bar codes in combination with RFID tags.
EPCIS 1.1 and CBV 1.1 were ratified by GS1 in May, 2014. New features in EPCIS 1.1 include support for class-level identification, a new event type to describe processes where inputs are transformed into outputs, and additional event data to describe business transfers and instance- or lot-level master data.
EPCIS 1.2 and CBV 1.2 were ratified by GS1 in September, 2016. New features include a mechanism to declare a previous event as being erroneous, and a mechanism for including master data into the EPCIS document header.
General Principles
EPCIS fits into an overall architecture based on GS1 Standards designed to support information needs related to real-world entities in supply chain business processes. GS1 Standards include:- Standards which provide the means to Identify real-world entities so that they may be the subject of electronic information that is stored and/or communicated by end users. GS1 identification standards include standards that define unique identification codes, such as the Global Trade Item Number.
- Standards which provide the means to automatically Capture data that is carried directly on physical objects, bridging the world of physical things and the world of electronic information. GS1 data capture standards include definitions of bar code and radio-frequency identification data carriers which allow identifiers to be affixed directly to a physical object, and standards that specify consistent interfaces to readers, printers, and other hardware and software components that connect the data carriers to business applications.
- Standards which provide the means to Share information, both between trading partners and internally, providing the foundation for electronic business transactions, electronic visibility of the physical or digital world, and other information applications. GS1 standards for information sharing include this EPCIS Standard which is a standard for visibility event data. Other standards in the “Share” group are standards for master data and for business transaction data, as well as discovery standards that help locate where relevant data resides across a supply chain and trust standards that help establish the conditions for sharing data with adequate security.
The EPCIS standard includes these parts:
- A Data Definition Layer that defines a standard model for visibility events.
- A Service Layer that defines two standard interfaces:
- * The EPCIS Capture Interface by which EPCIS data may be delivered from a capturing application to an EPCIS repository or other system capable of receiving EPCIS data. Often the capturing application is interacting with the physical world through scanning bar codes or reading RFID tags.
- * The EPCIS Query Interface by which EPCIS Accessing Applications and trading partners may obtain EPCIS data subsequent to capture, typically by interacting with an EPCIS Repository.
EPCIS Data Model
The basic unit of data in EPCIS is a structure that describes the completion of one business step within an overall business process; this structure is called an EPCIS event. A collection of EPCIS events provides a detailed picture of a business process over time and place. The information content of a single EPCIS event is organized into four dimensions:;What : The identifiers of the object or other entities that are the subject of the event
;When : The date and time when the event took place, and the local time zone in effect
;Where : The identifier of the location at which the event occurred, and identifier of the location where the object are expected to be following the event
;Why : Information about the business context, including: an identifier that indicates the business step taking place, an identifier that indicates the business state of the object following the event, identifiers of the shipping and receiving parties, links to relevant business transaction documents, instance- or lot-level master data, and/or other information defined via user extensions.
Where the EPCIS data model calls for an identifier, EPCIS allows any URI to be used. Most commonly, the identifiers used are as defined in the EPC Core Business Vocabulary.
Each of the business steps in the process illustrated in the figure could be the source of an EPCIS event. The details of the content of each of those events are different depending on the business step, but all have the same four-dimensional structure.
EPCIS Event Types
All EPCIS events have the four-dimensional information content of what, where, when, and why. The EPCIS standard defines five different event types to allow for variations in the structure of the what dimension and associated variations in the semantics of the event.| Event Type | Content of what Dimension | Meaning | Example |
| Object Event | Identifiers of one or more objects | The specified objects participated in an event | Serial #s 111, 112, and 113 of Product X were observed at 10:23am on March 15, 2014, at Location ABC, during a "shipping" operation |
| Aggregation Event | Identifier of a parent object, and identifiers of one or more child objects | The specified child objects were physically aggregated to the specified parent object | Serial #s 111, 112, and 113 of Product X were placed into Bin #1234 at 10:23am on March 15, 2014, at Location ABC, during a "packing" operation |
| Transformation Event | Identifiers of one or more input objects, and of one or more output objects | The specified input objects were consumed and the specified output objects were produced | 10 units of Raw Material X and 10 units of Raw Material Y were mixed together to create 100 units of Product Z, at 10:23am on March 15, 2014, at Location ABC, during a "mixing" operation |
| Transaction Event | Identifier of a parent object, identifiers of one or more child objects, and identifiers of one or more business transactions | The specified objects were definitively associated with the specified business transactions | Serial #s 111, 112, and 113 of Product X were designated to fulfill Purchase Order 9876 at 10:23am on March 15, 2014 |
| Quantity Event | A class-level identifier and a quantity | The specified quantity of the specified class participated in an event The Quantity Event is deprecated in EPCIS 1.1, as it is subsumed by new features added to the Object Event in EPCIS 1.1 | 100 units of Product X were observed at 10:23am on March 15, 2014, at Location ABC, during a "shipping" operation |
EPCIS Capture Interface
The EPCIS Capture Interface provides a means for EPCIS data to be delivered from a capturing application to an EPCIS repository or other system capable of receiving EPCIS data. Often the capturing application is interacting with the physical world through scanning bar codes or reading RFID tags. The EPCIS Capture Interface specifies the delivery of an "EPCIS Document" containing one or more EPCIS events, using an XML format for EPCIS events defined by an XML schema provided in the standard. The EPCIS Standard provides bindings of the EPCIS Capture Interface that use either a message queue or HTTP.EPCIS Query Interface
The EPCIS Query Interface provides a means by which EPCIS Accessing Applications and trading partners may obtain EPCIS data subsequent to capture, typically by interacting with an EPCIS Repository. The Query Interface is defined as a web service supporting the following operations:| Query Interface Operation | Description |
| poll | Queries for EPCIS events matching specified criteria, immediately returning the results. |
| subscribe | Register a standing query for EPCIS events matching specified criteria. New events matching the query criteria are sent asynchronously to the subscriber on a specified schedule. |
| unsubscribe | Remove a previously registered subscription. |
| getSubscriptionIDs | Return a list of active subscriptions. |
| getQueryNames | Return a list of the types of queries supported by the service. |
| getStandardVersion | Return the version number of the EPCIS standard supported by the service. |
| getVendorVersion | Return a vendor-defined string identifying any non-standard extensions supported by the service. |
The EPCIS Standard provides bindings of the EPCIS Query Interface that use either a SOAP or AS2 as the transport mechanism.