Digital Messaging
About
Digital messaging has been in use across the automotive industry for over 40 years and vehicle production today totally relies on the seamless electronic exchange of information between all partners in the automotive supply chain from the OEM, through the Tier suppliers, to the raw material producer and the associated service providers.
Odette has been at the forefront of developments in digital messaging throughout this time, incorporating different formats such as UN/EDIFACT, which still forms the backbone of customer-supplier communications in the automotive industry, XML and, most recently, JSON which facilitates new solutions such as APIs to supplement the established EDI infrastructure.
Each of these formats and solutions have a role to play in the complex automotive supply chain. They can be interconnected and are able to coexist with each other, but all must guarantee the main principle of electronic data interchange, standardised interoperability between business partners.
News
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news
New OFTP2 feature optimises partner data management
06 Feb 2023
The OFTP2 Expert Group constantly reviews the OFTP2 protocol to ensure that it remain at the leading edge of file transfer technology. The latest enhancement -“Partner Data Exchange using XML“ - published in version 3 of the OFTP2 Implementation Guideline will bring about significant gains in time and efficiency.
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news
The next step in digitalising the Automotive Supply Chain: the Part Packaging Agreement
10 Jan 2023
The packaging of purchased parts is a key element of automotive supply chain management, however the diverse methods used to exchange information during the development and definition of part packaging solutions means that the process is not as efficient as it should be.
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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
UN/EDIFACT, XML and JSON
Together with its partners in the JAIF, Odette has developed a comprehensive and harmonised data model covering the main processes in the automotive supply chain. Using this data model, we specified specific UN/EDIFACT EDI guidelines for the automotive industry based on United Nations Standard Messages (UNSM), covering the communication requirements of the full Buy-Ship-Pay cycle.
The guidelines are used extensively throughout the global automotive supply chain and are constantly reviewed and updated by Odette and the JAIF to meet the challenging and ever evolving requirements of modern logistics management.
UN/EDIFACT EDI, today’s most widespread electronic commerce application, is designed to facilitate efficient data exchange and has been optimised to support the key business processes of automotive production and the associated supply chain, in a way few other technologies can match. Automotive companies still rely heavily on UN/EDIFACT EDI, the workhorse of data exchange in the digital supply chain, and currently see no need to reinvent the system for no additional benefit.
In addition, Odette also develops XML messages which provide a human readable, robust and durable format for information storage and transmission. These XML messages are not intended to replace UN/EDIFACT messages but to complement them. They are used to introduce digital messaging to new business areas and to smaller companies further back in the supply chain.
And finally, specific information blocks are also represented in JSON syntax to support REST-API based communication.
Since all these different syntaxes use the same data model structures, the highest level of interoperability between the different formats is guaranteed.
Resources
Individual digital message guidelines can be found in the various Process areas of this website. The Resources below provide the basic information needed when implementing EDI. To access the full catalogue of Odette and JAIF digital messages please go to Technology - Resources - Messaging.
Structure of an EDIFACT Interchange
EDIFACT messages are constructed according to the EDIFACT syntax rules as defined in the ISO 9735 standard.
This recommendation has been drawn up to clarify the basics of the EDIFACT syntax and to provide instructions for the application of these rules in EDI messages.
Version 2 of the recommendation is aligned with ISO 9735 Version 4 Part 11.
Model EDI Agreement
This agreement template has been drafted by EDI and business experts to provide guidance for what has to be agreed between EDI partners to organise the data exchange via EDI and about what to agree between the partners from a commercial point of view.
Odette Code Lists
This archived resource is either no longer valid or has been superseded by a later version
EDIFACT Application Level Syntax Rules
This archived resource is either no longer valid or has been superseded by a later version
Based on ISO 9735 Version 3
Interchange Control Guidelines
This archived resource is either no longer valid or has been superseded by a later version
This document provides guidance to EDI users on the control and management of data interchanges. These recommendations involve the use of data within EDIFACT syntax and should therefore be read in conjunction with the Odette EDIFACT Application Level Syntax Rules.