CAT Mach 1 Upgrade

Caterpillar (CAT) is completing its EDI capability upgrade. You may know of this initiative as “Mach 1,” which applies to all vendors in Europe and Asia as well.

The upgrade improvements contained these and other requirements:

1. Shipment Notice (ASN, 856) – changes now required as the key step in “validation for receipt of material”
2. Invoice (810) – now approved for payment only after validation is complete
3. Transmission – direct, secure using FTPS or SFTP

These process improvements, painfully achieved, may be regarded positively as a prod from CAT to become better organized (master data and process smoothing). Some further steps could be

1. You may wish to apply these improvements to other customers
2. Issue forecasts to vendors
3. Migrate to a more powerful ERP system.

These Mach 1 changes are part of the scorecard used when vendor selection process begins.  The negative impact on profit of a low score is dimly perceived. Perhaps only perceived after a bid is lost.

DCS can make many small changes economically so your processes are smooth allowing you to focus on material management rather than CAT upgrades.

UPDATE: A requirement of the upgrade is a compliant Standard Practice 20 (SP20) shipping label for all materials procured through SAP/Mach 1. If your label was certified prior to January 2013 you must re-submit for certification otherwise. By SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 you must make the required changes to your shipping label and ASN (if needed) and submit an electronic copy of your SP20 shipping label(s), with the corresponding EDI 856 Advanced Ship Notice(s) and EDI 810 Invoice(s).

What other changes have you heard that are imminent?

Follow @DCSEDI