EDI for the Food Industry
EDI is mature and highly effective for food producers. Grocers such as Kroger, food service companies such as Sysco, ingredient users such as General Mills, and the Department of Defense – over 10,000 companies – are EDI active. The standards X12 and GS1 (formerly 1SYNC) standards published by the Uniform Code Council are comprehensive and time tested. The twin components of EDI (format and transmission) have evolved over the years to increase efficiency. Unfortunately, this means more challenges for the medium sized companies and their brokers.
For companies selling to mass merchants and grocers, E-Commerce has brought evolutionary changes such as Shipment Notices (ASN, 856) especially adapted to RFID. Every traditional business process has been impacted. The business areas impacted include price/deal sheet, item, and data synchronization (GS1 and standardized XML tags), secure Internet data transmission (EDI INT AS2), public warehouse connections (940 series), payments (EFT: CTX+ and 820), and product identifiers (RFID and GTIN) changes.
Most recently lot tracing (“one step forward, one step back”) has morphed to a requirement. Implementation of these technologies is no longer just an issue of competitiveness, but is now an issue of survival. The key then is to implement thoroughly, quickly, and economically.
DCS Guides Food Producer Through EDI Conversion Learn how EDI helped a food producer uses EDI to cut operating costs.Success Story
Your business is unique, yet aligning your time tested methods to key customers’ requirements is needed. This means your existing ERP and EDI systems must be adapted over time to meet these evolving requirements. The process is straight-forward but not trivial. It should be broken into small, manageable tasks; from which valuable experience is learned. It is also wise to have expertise to avoid costly detours.
Our DCS PROCESS™ ensure improvements will be thorough and quick. DCS has deep experience with food producers; you can leverage it. The next step is to email DCS to set your FREE Assessment.
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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of routine business documents such as Purchase Orders, Shipment Notices, Invoices, and Remittance Advices without human intervention. Data moves from your customer’s computer system – through the Internet securely – to your computer system.