Finished Vehicle Logistics
Digitalising Vehicle distribution. A cooperation between Odette and ECG
About
Finished vehicle logistics concerns the activities involved in the movement of a vehicle from the time it leaves the OEM production line until it reaches the dealer or final customer. Besides the actual transport of the vehicle, which can be made by road, rail, sea and even air, other important activities include storage, post-production modification, maintenance, repair and pre-delivery inspection.
This is a highly specialised sector of the transportation industry with very specific requirements but while the digitalisation of supply chain processes upstream from the vehicle manufacturers has been underway for many years, the downstream processes have been somewhat overlooked in the drive towards standardisation. Each major player developed their own proprietary solution which posed a serious challenge for logistics service providers and limited the flexibility of OEMs to improve their distribution processes.
In 2019 Odette and ECG, the Association of European Vehicle Logistics, formed an alliance to share experience and develop standards that meet the business requirements of both the OEMs and their service providers in outbound logistics.
The first result of this alliance was a set of UN/EDIFACT and XML messages covering the complete FVL communication process. Published in 2020, this message set is now being implemented by several vehicle manufacturers, compound operators and vehicle forwarders and has seen further enhancements arising from the implementation experience. Following this initial success, ECG and Odette have worked together to produce a set of KPIs for FVL and a standardised VIN label to make vehicle processing more efficient and to include the latest information requirements such as Fuel Type.
News
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news
New tool accelerates the logistics flow for finished vehicles
09 Jan 2023
ECG and Odette have come together to develop a ground-breaking standard for VIN labels to help overcome inefficiencies in the process of delivering finished vehicles to its final destination. And it’s already under deployment by Volvo Cars worldwide.
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news
Fast track updates speed FVL digitalisation for German automakers
06 Jan 2023
Odette continues to support European vehicle manufacturers as they start to implement the standard digital messages developed by Odette, ECG and VDA to support communication across all Finished Vehicle Logistics processes.
BMW and VW are now well advanced in the introduction of the messages with their FV LSP partners
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news
KPIs for Finished Vehicle Logistics
31 May 2022
Vehicle manufacturers use KPIs to measure the performance of their LSPs but even if there has often been some commonality of purpose, the methods of measurement have not always been the same and standardisation was much needed.
Initiatives
Resources
RFID in Vehicle Distribution Processes
This Odette recommendation describes the processes and methods of tracking and tracing vehicles in the distribution processes from factory to dealer using RFID technology and a smart label. It has been developed to move towards achieving widespread standardisation of RFID component usage, tag data storage and RFID technology implementation across vehicle distribution chains.
VIN Labels in the Vehicle Distribution Process
Developed by Odette and ECG, this recommendation has the following objectives:
- Define a standard location and fixing method for the vehicle identification label
- Recommend a size and layout for the vehicle identification label
- Define a minimum content for the vehicle identification label
- Recommend a bar-coding standard
- Provide recommendations for the quality of the vehicle identification label
Digitalisation of Finished Vehicle Logistics
This Recommendation covers typical logistics and service processes undertaken in the distribution of finished vehicles between vehicle manufacturers and their dealerships or other end customers. It specifies standard electronic messages for automated data exchange between vehicle manufacturers (or other shippers) and providers of logistic services. These logistics services can include transport, storage, maintenance, repair and any other actions that may be required during the movement of vehicles from the manufacturer to the dealership.
A set of messages associated with this Recommendation has been developed to cover all communication processes currently defined as being required between partners (vehicle shippers and logistics service providers) in the Finished Vehicle distribution chain.
FVL EDIFACT Messages
EDI Implementation Guidelines
A suite of 12 EDIFACT messages have been developed jointly by ECG, Odette and VDA to cover the entire outbound logistics processes as described in the Finished Vehicle Logistics Process Description (FV00). The publication also includes example use cases and sample messages for each logistics process.
FVL Vehicle Damage Report Message
XML Implementation Guideline
Sent to communicate damage information from the LSP to the OEM.
Key Performance Indicators for Finished Vehicle Logistics
Provides a consolidation of existing and new KPIs for use between OEMs and logistics service providers involved in the transport of the finished vehicles and their interim storage during the transport process.
Includes a definition of 9 indicators (objectives, scope, how to measure) and a description of application and communication conditions.
Vehicle and Transport Status Code List
This Code List document is a support for the FVL messages which are used to provide status information related to individual vehicles and to any truck on which they are being transported. It is published separately because it is expected to be more volatile than the specifications of the status report messages themselves.
The status report messages involved are FV09/FV12 (EDIFACT) and FV16/FV17 (XML).