West Springfield, MA-Item Data exchanged between manufacturers and distributors in the electrical industry contain significant errors, according to a report released by the Industry Data Exchange Association. The report was the result of a study conducted to determine the level of synchronization of item data exchanged between manufacturers and distributors in the industry.

The study demonstrates that there is a wide degree of variance between the trading partner's item data causing significant financial and supply chain problems in the industry. According to the study, 60% of the items submitted by manufacturers do not accurately match those in their trading partner's files costing companies in the industry hundreds of millions of dollars in increased transaction costs and lost sales.