The GS1 System: The Standards Behind GDSN

The Global Standard Management Process (GSMP) of GS1 develops the standards needed to support GDSN.

• View GDSN standards in the GS1 Standards Knowledge Centre

For each standard, the GSMP provides two critical components that make the GDSN standard work: TheBusiness Message Standards (BMS) and Extensible Markup Language (XML) Schemas. While the BMS contains all necessary information to implement the electronic messages, the XML schemas are the messages themselves in electronic format.

GLNs and GTINs are two of the unique GS1 Identification Keys necessary to the GDSN data synchronisation process.

• The Global Location Number (GLN) is a 13-digit unique location number mandatory within the GDSN to identity data owners/information providers, such as distributors, brokers, and manufacturers, as well as legal entities and physical locations.
• The Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is a 14-digit number used to uniquely identify a products where there is a need to retrieve pre-defined information. The product may be priced, ordered or invoiced at any point within the supply chain.

The Global Data Dictionary (GDD) is a repository for all data attributes, which are simply descriptions of any item. It allows users to store, reuse and share precise entry names and business definitions and their equivalent representations for GS1 Standards such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), XML and Automated Identification Codes (AIDC).