Page 287 - DMGT501_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Supply Chain Management and JIT

Because of its reliability and flexibility, ANSI X12 was the most widely used North American Notes
standard in the early 2000s. Also called ASC X12, ANSI X12 was developed by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI), which administrates and coordinates voluntary industry
standardization within the United States. In addition to its prevalence in North America, this
standard also was used in Australia and New Zealand.
Created in 1987 with the cooperation of the United Nations, Electronic Data Interchange for
Administration Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) standards combine the best aspects of
ANSI X12 and a standard known as United Nations Guidelines for Trade Data Interchange
(UNTDI). Because it is so universal, EDIFACT is suited for use in international EDI. Although
EDIFACT was becoming increasingly popular in the early 2000s, it lacked the comprehensiveness
of ANSI X12.

In addition to ANSI X12 and EDIFACT, other EDI standards also exist, including Global EDI
Guidelines for Retail (GEDI), used within North America for international trade; the grocery
industry's Uniform Communication Standard (UCS); Voluntary Inter-Industry Commerce
Standards (VISC), used by retailers of general merchandise; Warehouse Information Network
Standard (WINS), used by public ware-houses; TRADACOMS, created by the Article Numbering
Association and used by retailers in the United Kingdom; and NACHA, developed by the
National Automated Clearing House Association and used for transactions in the banking
industry.
For companies using open EDI, a language called extensible markup language (XML), similar in
some respects to hypertext markup language (HTML), allows users to share information in a
universal, standard fashion without making the kinds of special arrangements EDI often requires
and regardless of the software program in which it was originally created.
Source: http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/384/Electronic-Data-Interchange
EDI.html#ixzz0Vn3Q9dfK

13.5 E-commerce

This is an abbreviation for electronic commerce, and is usually defined as the conduct of business
online, via the Internet. There is a wide array of definitions used to describe business-to-business
(B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) E-commerce, the two forms that are relevant to operations
management. Business-to-consumer is the exchange of services, information and/or products
from a business to a consumer, as opposed to business-to-business which is between one business
and another. Some studies have used a fairly strict definition that requires that business is done
electronically without any human involvement. In the narrow definition of e-commerce, it
would require that firms have extensive websites linked to ERP, SCM, and/or CRM systems.
Other definitions used by the European Commission and the United Nations have been fairly
broad, stating that B2B and B2C e-commerce are any commercial transaction done between two
businesses or between businesses and consumers using some form of electronic technology.
This includes the sharing of various forms of business information by any electronic means
(such as electronic mail or messaging, World Wide Web technology, electronic bulletin boards,
smart cards, electronic funds transfers, and electronic data interchange) among suppliers,
customers, governmental agencies, and other businesses in order to conduct and execute
transactions in business, administrative, and consumer activities.

Early electronic commerce was the preserve of large companies because the systems required
large investments to build or lease mainframes, with complex, purpose-specific software,
proprietary networks and massive systems integration. Today, however, users of all kinds need
only a PC and a phone line to take advantage of the growing number of public and private
networks that use standard protocols such as TCP/IP. E-commerce is not limited to the Internet

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