| SAP, ERP and EDI Posted by: Jordan in Untagged on Sep 05, 2008 |
Those are three acronyms you may hear mentioned if you work for a manufacturing business of any kind. For the past couple of weeks you may have noticed my activity level declining on CodeCall. Several of you chat with me on a regular basis and may have noticed that I haven't been very responsive. For that I am sorry but here is the reason....
SAP is an ERP system that generates EDI. An ERP system, in laymen terms, is what runs a factory or organization from order to cash (customer orders a part to customer paying for the part they ordered). There is a lot involved in it such as planning to make the part, making the part (assembly), and shipping.
EDI is involved at the beginning and end of this process. EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. Here is how it works:
Simply put, EDI is what I do. EDI is similar to XML in the concept that XML is a method to share data between two dissimilar systems. I "map" EDI from one format to another. For instance, I take an ANSI X12 830 (PO) and map it to a SAP DELFOR IDOC. On the other side (the outbound side), I take a Shpmnt05 (SAP) and map it into an ASN (ANSI X12 856). Another example: I take a VDA, Odette or Edifact EDI document and convert it into something SAP can read (such as a DELFOR or ORDERS05). On the opposite side, I take an SAP IDOC and convert it into an ASNI X12 ASN, EDIFACT DESADV, ODETTE ASN or VDA 4913.
For the company I work with my responsibility is to convert new plants from their current EDI system to our new corporate standard EDI system. So far I've done Markdorf (Germany) and Fletcher ( NC). On September 1st we went live with Fletcher which converted from Oracle Applications ERP and Gentran/TrustedLink EDI to SAP/Axway EDI system.
For the last year we (the SAP Team) have been migrating the Fletcher, NC plant to SAP. With any project this large you can expect problems. For the last week I've spent a lof of time fixing problems and errors. In fact, I've given over 52 hours of overtime (which I don't get paid for) since last Friday. This wordy explanation is the reason you haven't seen or heard much of me recently.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
SAP is an ERP system that generates EDI. An ERP system, in laymen terms, is what runs a factory or organization from order to cash (customer orders a part to customer paying for the part they ordered). There is a lot involved in it such as planning to make the part, making the part (assembly), and shipping.
EDI is involved at the beginning and end of this process. EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. Here is how it works:
- The customer sends a "file" that contains data. The data specifies what part they want on what day. There are different variations and standards of this such as the ANSI 830/862, EDIFACT delfor and deljit (jit = just in time) and German VDA standards (not to mention Odette standards).
- This is entered into our ERP system which is now SAP. The SAP system controls the entire organization which tells the floor workers what to make and when plus delivers reports from what was purchased to what is spent.
- We create and ship the part. Upon shipping an ASN (advanced shipment notice) is generated that is sent to the customer which tells them what part we shipped and the quantity that we shipped.
Simply put, EDI is what I do. EDI is similar to XML in the concept that XML is a method to share data between two dissimilar systems. I "map" EDI from one format to another. For instance, I take an ANSI X12 830 (PO) and map it to a SAP DELFOR IDOC. On the other side (the outbound side), I take a Shpmnt05 (SAP) and map it into an ASN (ANSI X12 856). Another example: I take a VDA, Odette or Edifact EDI document and convert it into something SAP can read (such as a DELFOR or ORDERS05). On the opposite side, I take an SAP IDOC and convert it into an ASNI X12 ASN, EDIFACT DESADV, ODETTE ASN or VDA 4913.
For the company I work with my responsibility is to convert new plants from their current EDI system to our new corporate standard EDI system. So far I've done Markdorf (Germany) and Fletcher ( NC). On September 1st we went live with Fletcher which converted from Oracle Applications ERP and Gentran/TrustedLink EDI to SAP/Axway EDI system.
For the last year we (the SAP Team) have been migrating the Fletcher, NC plant to SAP. With any project this large you can expect problems. For the last week I've spent a lof of time fixing problems and errors. In fact, I've given over 52 hours of overtime (which I don't get paid for) since last Friday. This wordy explanation is the reason you haven't seen or heard much of me recently.
If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
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