What EDI is

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) can be formally defined as 'The transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention'.

There are four major sets of EDI standards:

• The UN-recommended UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is predominant outside of North America;
• The US standard ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is predominant in North America;
• The TRADACOMS standard developed by the ANA (Article Numbering Association) is predominant in the UK retail industry;
• The ODETTE standard used within the European automotive industry.

Based on the standard, there are specific rules to build a document: some info can be mandatory and some not.

The aim of this blog is to discuss about the most used UN/EDIFACT messages in the transport industry.