SEEBURGER Releases New WebEDI Partner Portal To Support MMOG/LE Certification For Automotive Suppliers
SEEBURGER Inc. recently announced a series of upgrades to its WebEDI automotive partner portal designed to support AIAG Materials Management Operations Guideline/Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/LE) recommendations for optimizing logistics practices. The upgrades will assist smaller suppliers in securing the MMOG/LE certifications now being mandated by automotive OEMs to ensure that all partners have capabilities such as EDI, barcoding and the ability to provide shipping data such as Advanced Ship Notices (ASN's).
Enhancements to the SEEBURGER portal, a licensed platform for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers that is currently used by over 10,000 automotive suppliers around the globe, include inventory monitoring, material tag generation, and third-party logistics (3PL) integration that can improve materials management by further reducing manual processes.
The portal can be deployed on a standalone basis in any language or as an extension of the SEEBURGER B2B Gateway, an advanced B2B integration platform that has been widely used by the automotive industry for more than two decades. The licensed model eliminates the need for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to outsource their strategic supply chain relationships to an aggregator, pay annual fees to a portal service, or charge their downstream suppliers for portal use. This helps to maximize adoption by smaller suppliers who are frequently unwilling to pay a third party for portal access.
New MMOG/LE-compliant portal features include:
- Inventory monitoring capability giving suppliers near-real-time visibility into the OEM's parts inventory for demand-based replenishment. The portal can now display current parts stock from the OEM's ERP system, as well as manufacturer-defined minimum/maximum stock levels, to assist suppliers in meeting just-in-time and just-in-sequence production schedules.
- An integrated barcode generator that allows suppliers to produce AIAG B10 compliant material tags directly from the portal for use on parts, packed boxes or pallets as soon as a shipping notice has been issued. This provides the same fast and accurate scanning-based goods receipt process at the OEM's warehouse for parts from smaller trading partners as those received from larger parts manufacturers.
- 3PL data integration that eliminates the need for suppliers to log onto a separate website to see and support 3PL pickup and delivery schedules for parts that do not ship direct to the OEM (milk runs). The portal can now publish demand messages and other data received from 3PLs and integrate this data with OEM schedules, enabling suppliers to glean the information they need to service all OEM requirements from a single interface.
These features complement the core functionality of the SEEBURGER automotive partner portal, which extends EDI-style automation to smaller suppliers that lack back-end ERP systems or do not do sufficient volume with a given customer to justify the investment in conventional EDI connectivity. Suppliers can use the portal to access call data generated by the customer's ERP system via a Web browser for human processing or download, as well as to automatically generate documents such as material releases, shipping notices, invoices and acknowledgements.
In addition to the economic advantages and customization options provided by owning one's own portal, the licensed model provides a competitive advantage over outsourced solutions by preventing other OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers from seeing and leveraging the owner's supply base on a community portal.
Other benefits include improved logistic processes in support of lean production, significant cost and error reductions accomplished by eliminating faxes and other manual data handling, and process transparency between the in-house system and the supplier hub.
"These new enhancements to our WebEDI portal will help suppliers increase their efficiency and accuracy as well as their MMOG scores without a costly EDI hookup," said Scott Lewin, President and CEO, Seeburger Inc. "Automating these suppliers will in turn deliver incremental improvements in materials management for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers themselves by enabling right-place-right-time delivery performance throughout the supply chain — not just with larger partners who can afford EDI systems."
The SEEBURGER WebEDI automotive partner portal is one of several options available from SEEBURGER to streamline supply chain management by eliminating manual communications with smaller trading partners. The company also offers a Hub & Spoke system providing cost-effective connectivity for partners with back-end ERP systems; an XMLMail service enabling two-way interactive email integration that automatically converts pre-configured populated forms sent by email into XML documents; and a Paper2ERP option allowing faxes and other paper documents to be processed electronically to reduce the time and error risks of manual data entry.
About SEEBURGER
SEEBURGER is a leading provider of global business integration solutions designed to optimize transactions throughout the extended enterprise by automating trading relationships with all partners regardless of their size and technical resources. Launched in 1986 to provide integration solutions to the automotive industry in Germany, the company today is ranked among the top business-to-business gateway providers by top industry analysts, and serves more than 7,000 customers in more than 50 countries and more than 15 industries through its flagship B2B Gateway and related products and services. SEEBURGER has global offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, including a U.S. office that opened in 1998. For more information, visit www.SEEBURGER.com.
SOURCE: SEEBURGER Inc.