EDI Supply Chain Solutions Role For Managing Products Supply Processes
EDI Supply Chain Solutions and Supply Chain Management in most cases may not be connected directly. So what is the relationship between EDI Supply Chain Solutions and products flow management..?
Actually, EDI may be called a part of B2B business structure where it plays the role of modern informational technology for documents exchange. Previously, B2B solutions used such technologies as value-added networks and free-standing modems. EDI Supply Chain and Supply Chain Management occur together in ERP systems where a good example is shown how EDI can be connected to Supply Chain Management. ERP is a highly structured formation so the EDI in it shows a right connection of people and process.
Usually EDI Supply Chain Management regard the following set of electronic documents:
- PO (Purchase Order) – contains name of the ordered goods, description, quantity etc. (is sent by a retailer);
- ASN (Advanced Ship Notice/Manifest) – document that describes goods packaging (is sent by a supplier);
- Invoice – invoice for payment (is sent by a supplier);
- Remittance Advice – payment confirmation (is sent by a retailer);
- FA (Functional Acknowledgement) – special document type that is automatically sent as a conformation of an EDI document reception and contains information about unprocessed data (if there are any).
EDI business solutions are used in many industries and branches where parties need to exchange data – retail, insurance, healthcare, transport and logistics etc. Big retailers such as Wal-Mart, Barnes and Noble, Target, Walgreen’s, Harrods and others apply EDI business solutions for electronic documents exchange with their trading partners and suppliers. They set documents format used by the company and demand from their vendors sticking to such standards.