About mpXML

Most manufacturers, distributors, and retailers in the meat and poultry industry are dealing electronically with other companies in the supply chain. Those electronic transactions are done directly (company to company), via EDI over a VAN or the Internet, or through one or more of several exchanges (Transora, Amphire, iTN, EFS, UCCNet, etc.) The proliferation of disparate one-to-one data relationships has a number of financial and operational impacts on all supply chain participants. It is likely that each of the communication methods employed in these scenarios is different. For example, if a retailer is dealing with five different suppliers utilizing five different methods (EDI, direct to partner, exchange, etc.) it is likely that the programming/interfacing required for each method is different, the data elements are slightly different, etc. Maintaining and managing disparate data formats slows down the flow of data between partners, increases IT costs, necessitates a full synchronization process every time a new supply chain partner is added and complicates the process of capturing equivalent data from the different formats.

Moving to a standards-based approach yields significant direct advantages for the meat and poultry industry:

• Having to maintain only one data profile lowesr IT costs.
• Adding new supply chain partners that also use the standard is significantly easier and less expensive.
• Information can be transmitted throughout the supply chain much more quickly.
• Orders can be received into stores and DCs more quickly and accurately.
• Potentially, producers will be able to assemble pallets for each specific store, lowering cross-handling time and cost and lessening the opportunities for temperature variances and spoilage.
• Getting product into the stores and displays more quickly with less temperature variance will allow longer effective shelf life and lower shrink.
• Better data capture will facilitate the kind of category management now utilized in the center of the store.

Who are We?

Meat and Poultry XML (mpXML) is the non-profit business to business data standards organization pioneering the development and use of the standards that support electronic commerce among all segments of the meat and poultry industry. The organization is comprised of representatives from all sectors of the meat and poultry supply chain.  Membership in mpXML is open to all meat and poultry industry suppliers, distributors, grocery retailers, food service operators, government agencies, and incorporated industry associations that wish to participate in and support the development of the mpXML standards. Governance is provided by an unpaid Board of Directors with elected officers.

mpXML achieves its mission by developing and promoting the use of open standards for exchanging business information among all segments and entities in the meat and poultry supply chain. mpXML works to adapt and implement existing logistics standards from GS1 and EDI messages from X12 that are used globally throughout the meat and poultry industry.

mpXML encourages active participation from as many industry representatives as possible. In an effort to draw more industry representatives into the forum, ALL membership fees are being waived until January 2011. There are no dues for the year 2010 and fees will be dramatically reduced for 2011.