Bureaucracy in action

The United Nations Standard Products and Services Code® (UNSPSC®), managed by GS1 US™ for the UN Development Programme (UNDP), is an open, global, multi-sector standard for efficient, accurate classification of products and services. UNSPSC is an efficient, accurate and flexible classification system for achieving company-wide visibility of spend analysis, as well as, enabling procurement to deliver on cost-effectiveness demands and allowing full exploitation of electronic commerce capabilities.

That description above - including the wonderful Department of Redundancy Department Department contribution in the second sentence -  is sampled directly from their website.

The classification matrix - which for "construction" alone runs to more than a hundred entires - includes the following procurement code:

72152711    Concrete patio construction service

...

So, how many committee person-hours were required to come up with that?

How often does that even get used?

Is it any wonder why western civilization is in its current state?

Inaction is one word. 

I'll try "Bureaucrat Monkey-Spanking" for $200, Alex.

I mean, if these guys didn't churn out this sort of BS by the ream, people would think they did nothing but sit on their thumbs all day.

I predict this will go off the rails.  IBTL!

Our buying system uses these codes and describing them as a clusterberkeley would be generous.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

I specifically chose that particular code because reasons of irony. 
 

In reply to Duke :

Your irony was not lost on me.  Commendable, if daring.  Perhaps dangerous?

so how much structure and strength is added to a concrete patio by bodies?

mad_machine said:

so how much structure and strength is added to a concrete patio by bodies?

If you get rid of the soft stuff, will the skeleton act like rebar?

If  you have never tried to export or import anything you are in for a shock.  There are multiple numbers required for classification of individual items:

ECCN - Export Control Classification Number  is an alpha-numeric, five character classification number used to identify items for United States export control purposes.

 Schedule B number, which is used by the Bureau of Census to collect trade statistics.

HTS: Harmonized Tariff System nomenclature, which is used to determine import duties. 

These numbers get very fine grained.   Importing an automobile may be one number but if you bring it in in parts then each part has its own number.   There are people who make a living classifying import/export items with these numbers before shipping occurs.

This only covers exportation on non-controlled items. 

Items with military or national security designations need a license to export.  Some items are not exportable under any license.  

There are some countries that are illegal for US companies to export to or import from.  North Korea for example.   

In reply to jharry3 :

I shipped some auto parts to Austrailia once. I spent an hour going through the forms and classification numbers. When I finally reached the end of the trail, I realized that what I was shipping (cut parts of a Boxster body for a repair) was exempt. After that I decided not to ship internationally. Just too much hassle compared to domestic.

jharry3 said:

If  you have never tried to export or import anything you are in for a shock.  There are multiple numbers required for classification of individual items:

ECCN - Export Control Classification Number  is an alpha-numeric, five character classification number used to identify items for United States export control purposes.

 Schedule B number, which is used by the Bureau of Census to collect trade statistics.

HTS: Harmonized Tariff System nomenclature, which is used to determine import duties. 

These numbers get very fine grained.   Importing an automobile may be one number but if you bring it in in parts then each part has its own number.   There are people who make a living classifying import/export items with these numbers before shipping occurs.

This only covers exportation on non-controlled items. 

Items with military or national security designations need a license to export.  Some items are not exportable under any license.  

There are some countries that are illegal for US companies to export to or import from.  North Korea for example.   

 

We ship all over the world everyday.  It's a nightmare, especially in certain countries.  I'm looking at you Canada and Brazil.  What works this week may not work next week.  And the HTS codes can change without notice.  You also need a certificate of origin that needs to be notorized and signed by the chamber of commerce.  Crazy.  UPS can do this for you, FedEx and DHL will not.  Different countries also require different COs.  Its a true mess.  Some days I want to pull my hair out.  I never get involved unless there's a problem.  Unfortunately this can be daily.  And then we need to discuss EEI filing for the US government...but that's a different rant.

Try looking into the 80 jillion codes used for medical and surgical treatments, if you want to see something frustrating.

I listen to so many conversations every week and I literally have no idea what the people do for a living.  It's not technical stuff either.

It's all in sentences a 10 year could understand.  They're just talking importantly about something that is apparently important.  It's bizarre.   

stuart in mn said:

Try looking into the 80 jillion codes used for medical and surgical treatments, if you want to see something frustrating.

No E36 M3. A few years ago, I had a procedure done at the doctor's office. Before I even went in for consultation, I called my insurance, to see if any portion of it would be covered. "100% covered, Mr NoMore." 

The day before the procedure, office called to confirm, and reminded me to bring my payment. Daberk? "It's $1000, must be paid in full, to have the procedure done." No, my insurance is covering this. Called my insurance again, had a conference call between insurance and office billing. It came down to how the procedure was coded. Exact same procedure, just coded and worded differently. 

Twenty-five years ago I had to ship some T-shirts from Canada to the US.  They were promotional shirts that we got from Nintendo or somebody.  Nintendo (or whoever) brought them into Canada from the US before we got them.  All I wanted to do was send them back into the States... but this process involved something called, IIRC, the NAFTA Multi-Country Textile Origins Declaration Form, in which I had to certify the portion of the cost of each shirt that could be allocated to fabric, sewing, design of shirt, design of artwork, production of artwork, application of artwork to shirt, and a couple of other things.  I'll be straight with you: I guessed at about 75% of it.  Who the hell, in a small franchising office outside Toronto, knows how much some guy in Japan was paid to design art for a shirt?  I felt slightly bad for misleading at least one and possibly two federal governments, but, after all, if somebody thought the Republic or the Dominion was in some sort of danger because of this shirt, they'd already missed their chance to chance to quarantine it at least twice on its previous travels.  I regret nothing.

I've been unfortunate enough to have to work with similar codes, they basically exist to make the industry a company belongs to machine-readable in an efficient and convenient (for a machine) matter. Newer and more granular classification systems are released all the time.

They're actually quite commonly used, and if the UN/ISO/etc didn't come up with them an industry group would probably invent one themselves...or each company would have to come up with their own, causing a massive duplicative waste of effort in building incompatible proprietary systems. So you should probably thank the UN for doing this

I dunno, I just spent $200 to have my resume polished up by a professional; all that verbage means something to someone.  I  mean hell, after reading my resume I'd hire me and I know better!