EDI Automation and Integration Building Better Customer Relationships at Trace Die Cast, Inc.

Background

Trace Die Cast is a Tier One and Tier Two supplier of high quality aluminum die castings for the automotive industry, as well as a provider of prototype development, design assistance, mold flow analysis, machining and many types of secondary finishing. Located in Bowling Green, KY, Trace was founded in 1988 and has experienced strong growth and success. The Trace business philosophy includes "the readiness to adapt our resources and capabilities to suit the customer's changing needs". It is this readiness to adapt that has made Trace Die Cast a pioneer in innovation, on the cutting edge of new developments that build great customer relationships.

In August, 2001 Trace became B&L Info Systems' first Odyssey user, migrating from B&L's iSeries solution, BLIS-400. Being an existing B&L user, and seeing the benefits of the Odyssey architecture, Trace licensed Odyssey before its' initial release. Starting with the implementation of Production Scheduling and Shipping & Invoicing, within a month, Trace added shop orders and shop cards. Within the year, Order Processing followed. Recently implemented Odyssey modules include Purchasing & Material Inventory, Quality Assurance, Lot Tracking, and EDI.

Challenge

In the past, Trace personnel worked hard to fulfill their customers' Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) requirements. Trace IT personnel used a stand-alone EDI application to process Ford Motor Company and DMAX releases, which were printed and passed to operations staff who manually entered the data into Odyssey. Half of Trace's GM EDI requirements were processed using Covisint via the Web. This process began with downloading a file from the web site, moving it to the EDI system for translation, and then passing the printed data along for data entry. The other half of the GM data was being received using another EDI application, for which data was also manually entered into Odyssey.

Afterward, production personnel scheduled the work, while the Trace shipping department determined the shipping schedules. Once a truck was loaded with a customer's order, a shipping clerk created the packing list and bill of lading. This paperwork was forwarded to the IT department, where a manual Advance Ship Notice (ASN) was entered. This was particularly challenging for GM shipments, since each file had to be processed individually in order to upload to the Covisint web site.

Finally, Ford Motor Company's MMOG Level 3 requirements mandated the elimination of manual intervention within the supplier's EDI process. This mandate required Trace to seek an automated EDI process, which is made possible via the Odyssey EDI module.

Solution

In search of a solution, Trace Die Cast personnel attended the B&L Info Systems' Spectrum 2004 conference in Philadelphia, PA. At Spectrum, Trace was introduced to B&L partner, Radley Corporation. Radley is a Michigan-based EDI software provider whose business model is built upon EDI, Supply Chain Management, and Barcode Data Collection solutions, with particular emphasis on solutions for the automotive vertical market. B&L and Radley had already formed a partnership expressly to provide the most efficient turnkey EDI solution for both B&L BLIS-400 and Odyssey users. Trace personnel learned that the B&L-Radley offering was the solution to Trace's EDI automation requirement.

Radley's iR*EDI translator solution allows users to manage and implement EDI Trading Partners, application-to-application integration, and customer- and supplier-specific requirements and business processes.iR*EDI's Job Scheduler automates EDI processes, emails notifications of EDI job success and/or failure, reschedules failed jobs, and archives all EDI job history. The iR*EDI document journal tracks all exchanged transaction sets, and offers detailed and summarized reports useful in monitoring the status of transactions, as well as archiving EDI files, integration files, and report data.

The integration between iR*EDI and Odyssey is very streamlined via the use of Web Services. In place of traditional directory file hand-offs, iR*EDI and Odyssey call each other's Web Services to trigger data imports and exports in an automated process flow.

Project Overview

Trace began the iR*EDI implementation for Ford, so that the MMOG requirements could be met. iR*EDI's scheduled process job connects to the Value Added Network (VAN) via a secure firewall-to-firewall FTP session. After EDI data is received and translated into files formatted for Odyssey, PDF reports of the EDI data are emailed to key Trace users, and the Odyssey Web Service is called to import and update Odyssey, and create shipping schedules.

When Odyssey processes the EDI requirements as shipments, a call is made to the iR*EDI Web Service to export the Advance Ship Notice (ASN) into iR*EDI and trigger a communication session. iR*EDI validates the Odyssey shipment data against the EDI customer's implementation guide to insure that all mandatory fields are populated before connecting to the VAN and sending the ASN. In the case that any mandatory information is missing from the shipping process, iR*EDI sends an automated email alert to Trace personnel so this data can be added to the ASN for receipt by the customer within the required time window. The ASN process will work similarly for other outbound documents such as electronic invoices, and for Trace customers, GM and DMAX.

Business Benefits

Trace Die Cast met Ford's EDI automation requirements and its' own internal EDI goals since implementing the Odyssey's EDI module and Radley's iR*EDI translator. EDI data is processed automatically, freeing up key personnel and improving customer service. The data is accessible throughout Trace, eliminating the need for multiple software products on multiple workstations and "sneaker-networking". EDI reports are emailed to users as needed. The integration of EDI with Odyssey has resulted in cost reductions and time savings. Most of all, the automation of Trace Die Cast's EDI business process supports the company's continued strong growth through the development of meaningful relationships with new customers in search of a qualified business partner for their die cast needs.