Manufacturing
Keep production planning in step with real customer demand
Manufacturers receive forecasts and schedules from customers and order materials from suppliers, and both sides change constantly. ECOM connects customer schedules, supplier documents and shipping data to your ERP and warehouse, so planning, production and shipments run on current data.
What is manufacturing EDI?
Manufacturing EDI covers the documents a manufacturer exchanges with customers and suppliers, including planning schedules (X12 830), shipping schedules (862), purchase orders (850), acknowledgments (855), ship notices (856) and invoices (810). Integrating these documents with ERP and MRP systems lets demand changes update production plans and lets shipments and invoices be generated from actual production and shipping data.
Who it's for
Different roles, different workflows
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Suppliers to OEMs and large manufacturers
Your customers send planning and shipping schedules, often weekly and daily, and expect ship notices with labels that match their receiving rules.
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Make-to-order and contract manufacturers
Customer purchase orders and changes drive production directly, so they need to reach the ERP quickly and accurately, from customers with very different capabilities.
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Manufacturers buying from many suppliers
Purchase orders go out to component and material suppliers, and acknowledgments and ship notices need to come back, including from suppliers without EDI systems.
How the workflow runs
From customer demand to shipment, and back through the supply base
Customer schedules arrive at different horizons. The longer horizon informs planning; the shorter one drives what ships. The supplier side follows the same pattern in reverse.
- ERP and MRPSchedules update requirements
- ProductionBuilt to current demand
- 856Ship noticeWith labels per customer rules
- 810InvoiceFrom shipped quantities
Supplier side850 order materials 855 confirmation 856 inbound ship notice, by EDI, WebEDI or documents
- 01
Planning schedules update requirements
The 830 shares forecasts and planned releases in weekly or monthly buckets, firm near term and planning further out, and updates requirements in the ERP or MRP.
- 02
Shipping schedules set near-term quantities
The 862 gives firm daily or weekly quantities and dates, and supersedes the 830 for the period it covers.
- 03
Production and materials follow
Requirements drive production and material plans, and purchase orders to suppliers are sent as 850s.
- 04
Suppliers confirm and ship
Supplier 855 acknowledgments and 856 ship notices update expected receipts. Suppliers without EDI can use a browser or send documents for conversion.
- 05
Ship and invoice customers
Ship notices with labels per customer rules, and invoices from shipped quantities. Cumulative quantities are reconciled where customers schedule that way.
Challenges
Integration challenges in manufacturing
Demand that changes weekly
Forecasts and schedules that reach planning late leave production working from yesterday's demand.
Several plants and ERPs
Documents have to reach the right plant, ERP instance and business unit, often across different systems.
Suppliers without EDI
Smaller suppliers confirm and ship by email or PDF, so expected receipts in the ERP are guesses.
Customer shipping rules
Large customers set ship notice content, label formats and timing, and penalize discrepancies.
How we help
How ECOM supports manufacturing companies
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Schedule integration
830 and 862 schedules translated and loaded into ERP and MRP planning, with changes visible to planners.
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Customer order integration
Purchase orders and changes posted as sales orders, with acknowledgments generated from the ERP.
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Supplier connectivity
Orders, acknowledgments and ship notices exchanged with suppliers by EDI, through a browser or as converted documents.
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Ship notices and labels
Ship notices and GS1 labels generated from production and shipping data to each customer's requirements.
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ERP integration
Integration through APIs, IDocs, files or databases for SAP, SAP Business One, Oracle, Microsoft, Infor, Epicor, QAD, Sage and other ERPs.
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Monitoring
Late schedules, missing acknowledgments and failed documents visible as exceptions.
PRISM products
Which PRISM products apply
Each partner connects in the way it can support. These products cover the connections and visibility this industry needs most.
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PRISM-EDI
Exchange of schedules, orders, ship notices and invoices with customers and suppliers in X12 or EDIFACT, translated to and from your ERP.
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PRISM-WebEDI
Browser-based purchase orders, acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices for suppliers without EDI systems.
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PRISM-SmartConvert
Supplier confirmations, invoices and customer orders that arrive as PDFs, emails or scans converted into ERP-ready data.
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PRISM-SCV
Monitoring of transactions and exceptions across customer and supplier documents.
Systems integration
What manufacturing EDI connects to
Schedules and orders only help if they reach the systems that plan and ship.
| System | What flows | What to plan for |
|---|---|---|
| ERP and MRP | Schedules and orders in; acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices out. | Release and cumulative quantity handling must match how the ERP plans. |
| Warehouse and shipping | Shipped quantities, packaging and labels for ship notices. | Labels and ship notices built from the same shipping data. |
| Supplier portals and documents | Supplier acknowledgments, ship notices and invoices. | Each supplier connects by EDI, browser or documents according to its capability. |
Multi-plant manufacturing
Documents routed to the right plant, facility or ERP instance
Manufacturers with several plants, warehouses or ERP instances receive documents for all of them through the same partner connections. PRISM routes each document to the right destination using business rules configured for your environment.
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By trading partner
Documents from a given customer or supplier go to the plant or business unit that serves that relationship.
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By location in the document
Ship-to, ship-from or plant codes in the document decide where it goes, so one customer can order for several of your plants.
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By document content
Other values in the document, such as part numbers or order types, can direct it to a specific facility or ERP instance.
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Configured for your environment
Routing rules are designed and tested with your plants and ERP instances during implementation; they are not preset for every ERP.
Implementation
What to plan for in a manufacturing EDI project
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Decide how schedules update plans
Whether 830s replace or adjust existing requirements, and how 862s override them, is a planning decision as much as an integration one.
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Map plants and ship-to locations
Customer location codes, plants and ERP instances need a maintained cross-reference, which the routing rules use to send each document to the right place.
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Plan supplier enablement in waves
Start with suppliers that already have EDI, then bring others on through a browser or document conversion.
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Test with real schedule changes
Test cancellations, quantity changes and cumulative resets, not only new schedules.
Documents and standards
Common transactions
Common X12 documents in manufacturing supply chains. EDIFACT equivalents such as DELFOR and DESADV are used by some international customers.
| Code | Document | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 830 | Planning Schedule with Release Capability | Shares forecasts and planned releases. |
| 862 | Shipping Schedule | Gives firm near-term shipping requirements. |
| 850 | Purchase Order | Orders goods or materials. |
| 855 | Purchase Order Acknowledgment | Confirms the order. |
| 856 | Advance Ship Notice | Describes the shipment. |
| 810 | Invoice | Bills for shipped goods. |
| 846 | Inventory Inquiry/Advice | Shares inventory positions. |
Scenarios
Typical integration scenarios
Contract manufacturers
Coordinate forecasts and orders from many brand customers with different requirements.
Make-to-order production
Feed customer orders and changes directly into production planning.
Supplier enablement
Bring component suppliers onto electronic ordering, acknowledgments and ship notices.
Automotive suppliers
Meet OEM and tier-one schedule, ship-notice and label requirements across several plants, with ECOM specialists who work in automotive every day.
Trading partners
Manufacturing partners we connect with
Examples of manufacturing trading partners ECOM can connect your business with.
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Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an 830 and an 862?
The 830 planning schedule shares longer-term forecasts and planned releases, firm in the near term and planning further out. The 862 shipping schedule gives firm, near-term quantities and dates and supersedes the 830 for that period.
Can EDI schedules feed our MRP?
Yes. Schedules are translated and loaded into ERP and MRP systems so planning reflects current customer demand. How they update existing requirements is agreed with your planners.
Do you support manufacturers with multiple plants or ERPs?
Yes. PRISM routes documents to the right plant or ERP instance based on partner, location or content.
Can suppliers without EDI participate?
Yes. Suppliers can use PRISM-WebEDI in a browser or send PDFs and emails that PRISM-SmartConvert converts into structured data.
Map your schedules into your ERP
Share a customer's 830 or 862 specification and the ERP you run. An ECOM specialist will explain how schedules can update your plans.