Odette has just released a best practice recommendation which defines a standardised way of acknowledging the receipt of despatch advice messages and the communication of any errors. These errors can be technical (syntax) or business process related (data errors, mismatch of delivery dates and/or quantities etc.). The recommendation focuses on the automotive supply chain and was necessary to meet the increasing requirements for accuracy and speed of information flows and overall cost reductions.

When a defective Despatch Advice message (DESADV) is received, the sender must be notified of the error(s). There are many different methods used today between trading partners to communicate the error notification. Many of the most common methods (fax, mail, telephone, portal alerts) can lead to problems such as:

• Information not reaching the correct partner/responsible person.
• Lack of visibility when several different parties are involved in the process (VAN/Interconnect/operating department/external service provider/Third-party delivery).
• Odette members, therefore, decided to launch a project to develop a more reliable and standardised method of error notification.

The main objectives of the project were to:

• Standardise the responses to the Despatch Advice.
• Reduce the effort required by using standardised EDI messages.
• Produce a highly automated error handling process which increases the transparency of the logistics process.
• Increase process stability in the whole supply chain.

In a despatch advice message, the supplier transmits information on shipped parts or assemblies and associated packages, together with quantities, label numbers, serial numbers, departure time and estimated arrival time.

The message is critical for the goods receiving process, updating warehouse figures and detecting bottleneck situations. Whenever the despatch advice cannot be processed automatically, a manual intervention is necessary to avoid an expensive disruption to production. Although the message has a key role for the control of logistics processes, the handling of errors is often rather poor.

Various types of error can lead to a situation where a despatch advice cannot be processed by the receiver’s system. In the worst case, due to syntax errors, the message cannot be processed at all. Other errors can be related to erroneous data (wrong identifier etc.) and finally there might be discrepancies between the transmitted figures and the actual received (or usable) quantities.

In many cases, the sender of the message (usually the supplier) incurs a financial penalty for each error caused by an erroneous message, to compensate for the additional effort and disruption at the customer end. Both sides have a genuine interest to avoid these situations and to implement actions that lead to an improvement in the quality of the transmitted data. A standardised notification of errors that can be processed automatically will undoubtedly help to achieve this improvement.

For the notification of detected errors and/or discrepancies, specific message implementation guidelines were developed by the project team to facilitate the use of UN/EDIFACT message types CONTRL, APERAK and RECADV. For the RECADV, a profile of the Joint Automotive Industry Forum (JAIF) Global Receiving Advice recommendation has been used.

In summary, the main drivers for the Despatch Advice Response recommendation were a higher process transparency, an increase in inventory accuracy, a reduction in time spent on exception handling and a reduction in the financial penalties which are a cause of resentment between suppliers and customers (often due to lack of information regarding the type of error involved).

We are convinced that this new recommendation will lead to a better relationship and closer integration of business partners in the supply chain and to an increase in process stability. It can also be used by software and service providers to enhance the functionality of their solutions.

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For more information contact the Odette Programme Manager, Joerg Walther