Posted by John Asi on Fri, Jul 16, 2010 @ 02:31 PM
Over the last couple of weeks, the lives of all of my family took a diversion from the normal routine of work, raising kids, paying bills, etc. We found ourselves in a daily struggle trying to come to grips with the possibility of losing someone very important to the family. My father, because of some serious heart related issues, had been taken to the hospital for observation and it was later determined that extensive surgery would be needed in order to correct his heart function.
The ordeal that followed was very difficult for my Mom, brother, and I. Dad went into the O.R. at 4:00pm on June 24th and was released to ICU at about 9:30pm that night, but due to complications was rushed back to O.R. and did not come back to ICU until 2:00am on the 25th. Those 10 hours in the waiting room were probably the longest 10 hours I had ever experienced in my life. Needless to say I did quite a bit of thinking about big picture things. You know, the things that each person faces when something potentially life changing has happened that makes the daily routine of life look trivial. By the time we were allowed into the ICU, not exactly sure about what to expect in terms of the prognosis, I was deep into an internal debate regarding my relevance in the grand scheme of life.
While sitting in the ICU watching all of the technology at work, I started to see familiar names. Names such as Cardinal Health, Hill-Rom, Tyco/Kendall, and Welsh Allyn. These were familiar to me because the EDI team at IQMS had built EDI mappings for these companies over the years. Unfortunately, up until then, these companies were just names that really did not mean much to me beyond the fact that they were a trading partner that needed to be setup and mapped. That was when something I try to share with all the employees I work with hit me: Look at the job you do from the perspective of whom and what it affects. Who does your job benefit besides yourself? How does it make their lives better?
We get so busy on the job trying to figure out the small details, the 0s and 1s, that we lose focus on the big picture of what we are doing. Being under the constant crunch to produce answers and results can, over time, bring frustration and a lack of appreciation for what we are a part of. What a wakeup call for me. While I certainly appreciate the position I have with IQMS, I would find myself moving from one issue to another without necessarily considering the big picture. Now I was looking directly at the picture and it made sense. Here was the single most important man to me being supported by equipment that exists because of the time and energy of many people. And I had never once prior to this taken the time to consider that the end result of the EDI mapping we create on a daily basis might be a part of a piece of equipment that was helping save someone's life. My Dad's life. I would like to think that it is possible that some of the material used in the equipment I saw in the hospital and more specifically in Dad's ICU was there because of an EDI transaction that came from one of our EDI customers.
While I cannot say that is Dad completely is out of the woods, he is at least back home under the watchful care of his family and is responding well. What I can say is that I have a very different perspective on how I view my job. I am thankful for all of our customers and the innovation that they bring to their respective industries. I am thankful for the hard work that the doctors and nurses did to help Dad. I am thankful for working at a company like IQMS that is relevant in its community and beyond and for the support I received while going through the last couple of weeks. I am thankful for my family and their support through this. Lastly I am thankful that I still have the opportunity to talk and learn from my Dad.
Posted by John Asi on Tue, Jun 01, 2010 @ 03:23 PM
Okay, so that is not how the line from Hamlet went (in more ways than one), but what is happening with traditional EDI in the industry these days. For a standard that has been around for quite some time without much change, is it still relevant in the modern day world of the Internet, Web 2.0, XML, Web Services, etc.
I was curious to see what the X12 Organization had to say about the future of EDI.
Interesting bit of reading, if we were in 1990. We are in 2010. This is the future. The day and age of ultimate connectivity to data, instantaneous communication, endless content, and more than enough blogs to numb the mind is here whether we like it or not. Not sure if you have heard, but there is so much data out there on so many websites that the IPV4 address space may be depleted as soon as September of 2011. And I was worried about the ozone layer. Traditional EDI must be dead.
Don't you believe it. The reported demise of traditional EDI has been floating around for over a decade. It seems that every time a new standard or protocol or buzz word appears, EDI is on the verge of being put to rest. Then it never happens. A perfect example of this was when the concept of Web services started to materialize. The thought was that EDI would be obsoleted in favor of the new method of passing data. XML was the standard that was adopted for passing messages through the web and it was thought that this format would at some point replace the "archaic" EDI formats currently in use. That was the thinking in 2001.
Interesting thing is that the industry did not seem to buy into the Web Services concept as a replacement for EDI and businesses started looking for new ways to communicate EDI transactions with each other. Even though XML was the bright new child in the industry, not many companies were jumping on board. Big players such as Walmart, J.C. Penney, and Hallmark understood that XML existed as an option, yet they opted to continue using standard EDI transactions rather than take the plunge with the new technology right away. In addition, Walmart took the initiative to drive some change in the landscape by implementing the use of an Applicability Statement 2 (AS2) protocol for connecting directly between two trading partners and eliminating the value-added network (VAN). This would introduce savings for the businesses that would adopt this protocol and helped fuel the continued growth of EDI in the supply chain.
As much as it seems that EDI may not play well in new environments, part of its ability to survive is that fact that it is adaptable. Even though traditional EDI tools were not replaced by a new data interchange standard based on Web Services in the early 2000s, those same EDI tools were used as the framework to support new technology. As these technologies mature, some of the tools used for processing EDI may change, but the standard will still define the content.
To further prove how relevant traditional EDI is to the modern industry, there have been many companies from retail foods to high end automotive companies that continue to benefit from the use of EDI. Two examples of such are Natural Products Market Place and Mercedes-Benz US International. Both of these companies made the investment to use EDI to manage their supply chain and have found that they are in a better position to handle difficult economies and fully realize good market climates because of their choice.
IQMS, a leading ERP company, has put a significant amount of energy into building upon many technologies including Web Services and community driven portals to bring high levels of data visibility and collaboration to its user base. Traditional EDI continues to be a relevant component in the suite of tools that the company offers. Through the use of the eCommerce Module, IQMS has a large customer base that is realizing the benefit of an integrated EDI solution utilizing a combination of traditional, non-traditional, and XML based EDI. These customers are able to handle orders and shipment notices in a much more timely fashion than would be possible in a manual entry process. As IQMS moves further into 2010, the number of requests for new transactions and trading partners has picked up pace. More businesses in the supply chain are moving to leverage the power and efficiency of a standard that has been around for over 25 years.
Is EDI dead? Not by a long shot.
Posted by John Asi on Fri, May 07, 2010 @ 03:13 PM
Successful companies have always been on the search for ways to streamline their business processes and run their daily operations as efficiently as possible. These companies know that their success as a business relies on how efficiently they interface within the supply chain and adapt to demand as needed. The brutal economy that crippled companies around the world last year and the slow recovery that has followed has forced many companies to evaluate how they operate within the supply chain and find ways to increase their productivity while keeping the cost of doing business down. EDI is a powerful tool in streamlining business processes and providing cost savings in the right environment.
So one might ask, "What is the wrong environment?" Good question. Too many times the consideration for using EDI does not go beyond the effort needed to get an EDI file in-house and possibly formatting a report to output some needed information from the data because a trading partner requires communication through standard EDI documents. Another situation may be the result of a legacy system that has been in place for many years with no one understanding what the magical "EDI box" really does other than it regularly outputs reports containing business critical information. From there a user might take that information and key in any orders and then call it a day and a job well done if they entered all the data correctly. In either case EDI has not proven its usefulness as a powerful and effective cost saving business tool.
Finding the "right" environment in which to implement EDI is not very difficult. It does require a little investment of time, a good understanding of internal business processes, and the right tools to make the most effective use of EDI within the corporation.
The time investment comes in the form of doing the research and understanding what documents a trading partners can work with and if those documents are used in sufficient quantity such that they consume a significant time to handle manually. A simple example of this is an automotive manufacturing delivery schedule (X12 862 or EDIFACT DELJIT). While receiving 1 or 2 on a weekly basis may require several hours to process manually, handling 20 or more of these documents becomes a significant process.
Understanding internal business processes is critical in order to adequately define business rules that are needed to correctly translate and process EDI. Knowing how key data elements are used within the company will help in configuration and support of the EDI process.
Ultimately, the most important piece in the equation is having the right tools available to make effective use of the EDI process and the data it provides. EnterpriseIQ and its integrated eCommerce module is such a tool. The eCommerce module is capable of processing both inbound and outbound transactions. Being integrated makes it possible to take inbound EDI data directly into the system and automatically create forecast schedules and firm sales orders and output order acknowledgements (855), shipping notices (856) and invoices (810) just to name just a few transactions. With the powerful MRP engine in EnterpriseIQ, the system can create work schedules and purchase requirements based on the data provided by the EDI transactions. Add the ability to take purchase requirements and generate outbound vendor purchase forecasts/orders (830 and 862) through the eCommerce module, EnterpriseIQ shows its strength. Another tool available within the EnterpriseIQ suite is EServer. This tool is used to completely automate the defined business process for handling EDI from start to finish. Specific actions can be defined to allow processing of acknowledgements, orders, notices, reports or any other requirements to effectively monitor and process the data flowing through the system. Utilizing EServer with the eCommerce module and the MRP engine allows EnterpriseIQ function seamlessly and efficiently within the supply chain while reducing the amount of time required handling manual processes, eliminating the chance for human induced errors, and keeping data and material flowing where it needs to.
Any company looking to streamline their processes and better fit into the supply chain should take the time to research how EDI might help them cut costs and become more efficient. While EDI may not be a fit for every company, knowing how they interface within the supply chain can provide valuable information and other opportunities to look for efficiencies.
Review how automotive supplier Nissen Chemitec America is utilizing eCommerce solutions by reading their case study.
Posted by John Asi on Wed, Mar 10, 2010 @ 10:47 AM
Electronic Data Interchange. The words by themselves are common and simple, but once you put them together, they can be intimidating. Let's cover a very brief history regarding EDI and shed some light on how it came into existence.
The concept of EDI has been around for quite a long time (in computer years that is). In the mid-1960s many companies jumped on the success of the second generation of computer systems coming from industry giants such as IBM and DEC. These computers could correlate and manipulate amazing amounts of data compared to the manual process of retrieving information from filing cabinets and people's memories and the prospects of putting these machines to work in corporate environments opened up a new era for business. With a cost of up to $1 million, over 100,000 of these systems were put into place globally. It was soon realized that in order to be competitive in the new market that was emerging, it would be necessary to minimize the errors and inefficiencies created by the large volume of paperwork being managed. Primarily driven by the transportation industry, the Transport Data Coordinating Committee was formed in 1968 to create a standardized protocol for data translation and exchange. While not the first implementation of an EDI protocol, it was the work done by the TDCC to standardize the documents being used by the transport industry that eventually provided the basis for the establishment of the ANSI ASC X12 body in 1979. This body has created the 300+ transactions that are part of the X12 standard. In addition, in 1987 the United Nations formalized the UN/EDIFACT standard with the intent to support standardization at a global level. These organizations continue to develop and modernize the standards as technology progresses.
EDI has been around for quite a few years and does not show any signs of weakening. The use of the standard has found a strong following from large corporations to sophisticated family businesses. While at first the standard can be daunting with the huge amount of documents that are supported, an extensive amount of information and support can be found regarding the effective use and implementation of EDI transactions. Application suites such as EnterpriseIQ from IQMS can simplify the process of implementing EDI. Through the integrated EDI module, business transactions can be read and converted into usable data within the system quickly, with fewer errors, and without human interaction. These benefits are the direct result of the vision of early pioneers in the industry and do show that a collaboration of minds can make a lasting difference in the way we do business.
Posted by Randy Flamm on Wed, Feb 24, 2010 @ 03:39 PM
There's no argument that fully integrated manufacturing ERP system is the way to go. It is very interesting that so many of the top ERP systems advertise that functionality such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Warehouse Management (WMS), Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Preventative Maintenance (PM), Quality Statistical Process Control (SPC), to name a few, are "integrated" into their ERP system. When you get under the covers you might find that "integration" means another company's products running on a different database with periodic batch transfer or no data sharing at all. They then fall back on the "Best of Breed" argument that allows them to point to a different solution that can "integrate" to theirs with hardly any work; after all they support Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) which allows any system to be integrated to our system. Not so fast.
The reality is that there are big costs involved to integrate and support a multi-vendor manufacturing system. SOA technology does nothing to address the costs to maintain the integration through the many updates to the best of breed and ERP software that will take place over time. Many times these software vendors will fall back on the promise of SOA as a way to disguise the fact that their product offering is limited and will not handle all of the requirements of the manufacturer.
You should be looking for an extended ERP system on a single database with user interfaces that have a common look and feel. The data synergy that can be achieved with an ERP system that has all of the above functionality built into the foundation of the product is the largest advantage over the best of breed model.