TASK 11: EDI Support of Fuels Acquisition
Preliminary DFSC EDI Current Practices Report (January 1997)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer to computer transfer of machine processable, content-standardized business information. The international standards body, Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transport (EDIFACT), was established by the United Nations (UN) in 1985. American Standards Committee (ASC) X12 and EDIFACT have established over 200 transaction sets intended to satisfy a broad spectrum of data requirements. Concurrent with these activities, several larger U.S. firms are expressing interest in accelerating migration to United Nations EDIFACT standards for international data interchange. The United States has committed to a process alignment between the domestic American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X12 Electronic Data Interchange standard, and the international UN/EDIFACT standard. The Defense Fuels Supply Center (DFSC) acts as the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA's) designated representative in conducting Department of Defense's management of fuel inventory and war reserves. DFSC's mission is to provide the Department of Defense (DoD) and our customers comprehensive energy support in the most effective and economical manner possible. The Defense Fuels Supply Center is an important participant in the global marketplace of petroleum products. Within this marketplace, suppliers, airline industries, fixed-base operators, and other participants including DFSC, jointly developed methods for applying EDI to the sale and delivery of petroleum products. International aspects of defense, the need for standardization and harmony, and the increasing reality of a global economy are factors that signal the need for a more common basis of data interchange. UN/EDIFACT holds the most potential for achieving this end with respect to the exchanges of routine business information. In this scenario, DFSC must ensure that its business functions currently satisfied by the ASC X12 standard can firstly be supported by the UN/EDIFACT standards. DFSC methods address use of U.S. national EDI X12 standards, and are beginning to look into a limited use of UN/EDIFACT standards for international data interchange. An example of this joint effort is the Aviation Network Project or AVNET, which is attempting to maintain comparability of business information in a small set of X12 and UN/EDIFACT standards, with the goal of making use of EDI in one or both formats nearly transparent.
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Preliminary DFSC X12 - UN/EDIFACT Message Comparison Report (January 1997)
The Defense Fuels Supply Center acts as the Defense Logistics Agency's (DLA) designated representative in conducting the Department of Defense's management of fuel inventory and war reserves. DFSC's mission is to provide the Department of Defense and our customers comprehensive energy support in the most effective and economical manner possible. The Defense Fuels Supply Center (DFSC) is an important participant in the global marketplace of petroleum products. Within this marketplace, suppliers, airline industries, fixed-base operators, and other participants including DFSC, jointly developed methods for applying Electronic Data Interchange to the sale and delivery of petroleum products. International aspects of defense, the need for standardization and harmony, and the increasing reality of a global economy are factors that signal the need for a more common basis of data interchange. UN/EDIFACT holds the most potential for achieving this end with respect to the exchanges of routine business information. In this scenario, the DFSC must ensure that its business functions currently satisfied by the ASC X12 standard can firstly be supported by the UN/EDIFACT standards. DFSC methods address use of U.S. national EDI X12 standards, and are beginning to look into a limited use of UN/EDIFACT standards for international data interchange. An example of this joint effort is the Aviation Network Project or AVNET, which is attempting to maintain comparability of business information in a small set of X12 and UN/EDIFACT standards, with the goal of making use of EDI in one or both formats nearly transparent.