Enterprise Material Transfer (EMT) via EDI
Posted on: January 21, 2010 | By: SuperUser Account | QAD Business Process
Enterprise Material Transfer or EMT is an excellent solution for anyone looking to fulfill an end customer’s demand through 2 levels or multi-level organizations. EMT is the process of automatically creating a purchase order to a supply base whether they are an internal or external source via the creation of a sales order from an end customers purchase order. When you combine EMT with QAD’s EDI ECommerce module you have a very slick process flow that manages your entire order fulfillment.
EMT supports two types of shipping practices; direct shipments where the secondary business unit ships to the end customer and trans-shipments where the primary ships to the end customer. Regardless of which is right for you the EDI documents flow the same. In a multi-level EMT environment all you really are doing is adding another layer in the process that will have an additional business unit(s) to include in your setups resulting in the transmitting of that many more EDI transactions.
When fully setup via EDI ECommerce you allow 850, 855, 860, 865, and 856 documents to travel between a primary and secondary business units. These will provide your business with a way to communicate new orders, order changes, and shipments in a more effective and efficient means. There are a number of scenarios on how you may leverage the EDI ECommerce module to transmit documents between a primary and secondary business unit(s). The following are some that Logan Consulting has provided successful solutions for:
1. The secondary business unit is an external supplier where the documents will need to be transposed to a standard EDI format (X12, EDIFACT, etc.)
2. The secondary business unit is another site within a separate domain of your current database (SNF or flat file transmission only)
3. The secondary business unit is another site within the same domain of your current database (SNF or flat file transmission only)
4. The secondary business unit is another site within a separate domain of a separate database within your organization (same server or seperate) (SNF or flat file transmission only)
One thing to keep in mind for a successful implementation of EMT with EDI ECommerce is to “Keep it Simple”. While the process is very slick when fully up and running it has many points of error. The more complex you make your scenario(s) the more difficult your error handling and debugging will be. While changes are allowed via EMT it is suggested you limit your process of too many changes if possible to reduce the confusion.
EMT is quite flexible so analyze your business’s process thoroughly before setting it up. You can fully automate EMT or partially automate to fit your business practices so choose what’s right for your business. Taking the time up front to fully layout your process flow will definitely save your organization much time and money.