Integrating Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Data with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Business Processes

Transcription

1 Integrating Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Data with Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Business Processes By Yan Chen, MLOG 2005 Introduction Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is an important component in the enterprise IT infrastructure. As a new technology, RFID has to be integrated into the legacy IT system. This thesis studies how RFID technology can be integrated into the existing Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) infrastructure, particularly how RFID can be used in the current EDI exchange process to accelerate the receiving process. The thesis proposes an algorithm for doing this. RFID RFID is a means of identifying an object using radio frequency transmission. The technology uses the Electronic Product Code (EPC) to identify, track or detect a wide variety of objects. Figure 1: Electronic product code. (Source: [1]) EPC ranges from 64 bits to 256 bits with 4 fields: Header, EPC manager, Object Class and Serial Number. EPC network infrastructure consists of four key components. Page 1 of 9

2 Figure 2: EPC network architecture. (Source: [2]) An RFID Reader detects and communicates with RFID tags when tags enter the reader s range. Application Level Events (ALE) defines the functionalities of the software which sit between the RFID reader and the data applications. Object Name Service (ONS) server provides the Internet Protocol (IP) address which stores information relevant to the EPC. EPC Information Service (EPC IS) presents EPC network related data in Physical Markup Language (PML) format to requesting parties. EDI EDI exchanges business documents between computers in a pre-defined standard format. Page 2 of 9

3 Suppliers Customers Application Software Application Software Business Documents Business Documents Translator EDI Message Value-added Network EDI Message Translator Figure 3: EDI network architecture. In EDI, the senders and receivers are called trading partners, and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) X12 standards supply a common language for formatting the information content of messages. Software tools called translators enable trading partners to converse in a standard language. Networking facilities such as the Internet or a commercial Value-added network (VAN) supplies the messaging medium. There are three components to X12 standard, namely transaction set, segment and data element. A transaction set is equivalent to a business document. Transaction Set Business Document 810 Invoice 820 Payment Order 832 Sales Catalog 850 Purchase Order 855 Purchase Order acknowledgment 856 Ship Notice Table 1: Selected ANSI X12 transaction sets. Business Transaction Using EDI Several ANSI X12 messages are exchanged between the buyer and supplier to finish a procurement process. Page 3 of 9

4 Supplier 832 Sale Catalog 850 Purchase Order 855 Acknowledgements 860 Purchase Order Change 856 Advance Ship Notice 810 Invoice 820 Payment Order Customer Figure 4: Procurement process using EDI messages. EDI Transaction Set 832 conveys product, pricing and packaging information. Once the customer makes a purchase decision, it will send EDI 850 (Purchase Order) to the supplier, while 850 translates the typical paper-based purchase order into the EDI format. Upon receiving the EDI 850 message, the supplier will reply to the customer with EDI 855 message, which conveys supplier s confirmation of receipt of purchase order for materials and quantity described within EDI 850. Before the supplier sends the products to the customer, the customer can modify the purchase order by sending the supplier with an EDI 860 message. The supplier will transmit an EDI 856 (ASN: Advanced Shipping Notice) to shipment recipient after shipment leaves supplier s loading dock. Once the customer receives the products and re-conciliate its order, the supplier will send the EDI 810 invoice to customer. Upon receiving the invoice, customer will instruct the financial institute with EDI 820 payment order to pay the supplier accordingly. Integrating RFID with EDI Current reconciliation for the receiving process involves labor to physically count the products received and manually verify the products received with the Purchase Order. The deployment of RFID readers in the receiving dock can help automating this process. The traditional manual process may be modified as below: Page 4 of 9

5 Figure 5: Automatic reconciliation. The sequence diagram for the middleware is presented as follows: Page 5 of 9

6 (1) Fetch PML from EPC IS [a] EPC IS (2) Convert EPC code to UPC code No (3) Manufacturer/ Product Match? [b] Ship Notice (856) Yes (4) Accumulative counting EPC s serial number No (5) Quantity match? [c] Yes Figure 6: Proposed algorithm for automatic reconciliation middleware. Step (1) The middleware fetches PML representation from the Electronic Product Code Information Service (EPC IS) for the reader events during the receiving process. The PML representation from EPC IS through interface [a] (as shown in Figure 6) is as follows: Page 6 of 9

7 <pmlcore: Sensor> <pmluid:id>urn:epc:1: </pmluid:id> <pmlcore:observation> <pmlcore:datetime> t13:04:34-06:00</pmlcore:datetime> <pmlcore:tag> <pmluid:id>urn:epc:id:sgtin: fdc </pmluid:id> </pmlcore:tag> <pmlcore:tag> <pmluid:id>urn:epc:id:sgtin: fdc </pmluid:id> </pmlcore:tag> </pmlcore:observation> </pmlcore:sensor> Step (2) A Serialized Global Trade Identification Number (SGTIN) is included in the PML representation as fdc in Step (1). The SGTIN is a special type of EPC code which incorporates a Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN) with serial number. Therefore the middleware can convert this EPC (SGTIN) code into GTIN representation. Figure 7: EPC (SGTIN) and GTIN conversion. (Source: [3]) EPC code is represented in Hexadecimal format, while GTIN is in Decimal format. Therefore a conversion of the EPC (SGTIN) to the GTIN is as follows: (Hexadecimal) converts to 2354 (Decimal), and 01fdc (Hexadecimal) converts to 8156 (Decimal). The first digit of Item Reference ( 001fdc ) is 0 and it becomes the first digit of GTIN code. Therefore, the converted code becomes: Page 7 of 9

8 GTIN. In fact, this is Universal Product Code (UPC), which is one of the four formats of Step (3) The ship notice (856) provides the middleware with details about what have been shipped through interface [b] (as shown in Figure 6). Segment LIN (Item Description) within 856 looks like this: LIN*001*UP* That means the supplier informs customer that products with UPC code are going to be shipped. The middleware can compare the UPC code obtained in Step (2) with UPC code specified by the EDI 856 message. If the RFID reader reads the correct product code as the EDI 856 specifies, customer is receiving the right products and the receiving and reconciliation process continues. If the recovered UPC code is not match with the EDI 856 UPC code, customer should contact supplier for clarification. Step (4) Ship notice (856) also provides the middleware with details about how many have been shipped. Segment SN1 (Item Details) within 856 looks like this: SN1**20*CA That means the supplier informs the customer that 20 cases are going to be shipped. PML representation includes the serial number of each read events, therefore the middleware can accumulate the serial number. Page 8 of 9

9 Step (5) The middleware then compares the accumulated count with the number specified by the EDI 856 through interface [c] (as shown in Figure 6), to decide whether the quantity received is the same as the EDI 856 specified. If the accumulated count is the same as the EDI 856 specifies, customer is receiving the right quantity. The customer completes its reconciliation process. Once it receives the invoice from supplier, it can release the payment. If the accumulated count is different from the EDI 856 UPC code, the customer should contact supplier for clarification. Conclusion The algorithm presented here is one approach to integrate RFID technology with EDI transactions for automating the receiving process. By doing this, a firm can improve its re-conciliation efficiency and become less reliant on manual intervention. Reference [1] David L. Brock. (2001, Jane 1) The Electronic Product Code (EPC), A Naming Scheme for Physical Objects, White Paper MIT-AUTOID-WH-002. The Auto-ID Center, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts. [2] Mark Harrison. EPC Information Service (EPCIS), Cambridge Auto-ID Lab, Institute of Manufacturing, University of Cambridge. [3] EPCglobal. (2004, April 1) EPC Tag Data Standard Version 1.1 Rev EPCglobal. Page 9 of 9