EPCIS

EPCIS

RFID event data." data-category="Standards & Protocols">EPCIS (EPC Information Services) is a GS1 standard for capturing and sharing supply chain event data across trading partners. It answers the four fundamental questions about any physical object's journey: What (which item), Where (which location), When (which timestamp), and Why (which business process step).

Event Types

EPCIS defines four core event types:

Each event carries standardised fields: EPC list, action (ADD/OBSERVE/DELETE), bizStep (shipping, receiving, etc.), disposition (in_transit, sellable_not_accessible, etc.), readPoint, and bizLocation.

EPCIS 2.0

The 2022 release of EPCIS 2.0 modernised the standard significantly:

• REST/JSON-LD API replacing the legacy SOAP/XML interface
• gs1-digital-link/" class="glossary-term-link" data-term="GS1 Digital Link" data-definition="Web URI format for GS1 identifiers." data-category="Integration">GS1 Digital Link URIs as first-class identifiers alongside classic EPC URIs
• Sensor data natively supported (temperature, humidity, location coordinates)
• Linked Data integration via JSON-LD context for semantic interoperability

Architecture

In a typical deployment, RFID readers capture tag EPCs. Middleware or edge processing layers filter and enrich the raw reads with location and business context. The resulting EPCIS events are stored in an EPCIS repository and shared with trading partners via the Query Interface. The Discovery Service allows partners to find which repositories hold events for a given EPC.

Industry Applications

EPCIS is mandatory for pharmaceutical track-and-trace under FDA DSCSA. It powers food traceability for safety recalls, automotive parts tracking, and the EU Digital Product Passport initiative. Major platforms (SAP, IBM, TraceLink) implement EPCIS repositories.

See also: EPCglobal | GS1 | Middleware