What is EDI 888 – Item Maintenance and where it is used?
These days, businesses that are involved with regular purchasing and selling of different materials are making use of EDI technology more frequently. It facilitates quick and seamless exchange of product-related information that takes place within a few seconds.
Clearly, with the assistance of this EDI technology, these businesses prefer to speed up the product procurement process. As the documents are exchanged quickly when compared to the paper-based documents, the entire process saves a lot of time as well as resources for both of the trading partners.
Among hundreds of EDI documents, some are used most often in a few specific industries. The EDI 888 sample is the best to be mentioned in this context. Also, this EDI 888 example is an ideal option to explain how EDI is helpful in increasing the overall productivity for many businesses.
What is an EDI 888 – Item Maintenance document?
The EDI 888 document is an electronic version of the Item Maintenance document. The standard EDI format X12 specifies both data contents as well as their location in this document.
Regarded as one of the most prominent EDI documents, this EDI 888 is mainly used in the consumer-goods market. A manufacturer, distributor, supplier, broker, and agent make use of this document to provide info about requested products. On the other hand, the retail sellers use it to maintain accurate details of all those products that are available in the store. Besides, it is also used to keep track of the details related to loading, shipping, or special handling of products.
A typical 888 EDI document comprises detailed info about the addition and removal of products. Sometimes, it also contains the changes made to the specifications of existing products. However, the details associated with the changes in pricing will not be sent through this document. One can send the EDI 879 – Price Information immediately with this document to relay the price -related info.
What makes up the EDI 888 Item Maintenance document?
Structured as per the EDI x12 888 specification, the EDI 888 document comprises many segments as well as data elements. Each of these segments will contain at least one data element and further this data element includes a data field.
The most common data elements that are incorporated in an 888 EDI document are:
- Product identifier
- Item description
- Measurements
- Pallet information
- Carrier-details like quantity and weight
- Packaging, loading, and marking details
What are the advantages of EDI 888?
Even though the 888 EDI is designed exclusively for the food industry, it is mostly utilized by the grocery industry nowadays. The document EDI 888 – Item Maintenance offers many advantages for its users, for example,
- With EDI 888 specification, both trading partners will be able to compare the product specifications mentioned in purchase orders as well as invoices. Thus, the usage of the document EDI 888 promotes higher accuracy as well as reliability.
- The manufacturers or distributors make use of this EDI 888 to communicate about their new products’ details to their buyers.
- More importantly, this EDI 888 facilitates the quick syncing of product-related data. The sellers will be enabled to quickly update the product details in the databases. These databases can be easily accessed by the buyers to get these product details. Also, this EDI 888 specification supports product updating automation.
How is an EDI 888 – Item Maintenance used?
As mentioned earlier, the EDI 888 document is used for three primary purposes, for instance
- To provide information about additions or deletions in the product specifications
- To indicate the recent changes in the existing product specifications
- To send along with the document EDI 879 – Price Information to specify changes in product prices
With regards to the usage, the EDI 888 – Item Maintenance document will be sent as a reply to the EDI 893 – Item Information Request. When the seller receives this document, he sends the EDI 997 – Functional Acknowledgment back to the document sender. With it, he indicates that the EDI 888 – Item Maintenance has been received successfully.
How is an EDI 888 – Item Maintenance processed?
Likewise, for every EDI document, the EDI 888 – Item Maintenance also requires EDI software for processing when it has been received by the receiver’s system or ERP/other accounting software. Besides, it must be in the human-readable format to facilitate seamless manual data entry as well.
While exchanging an EDI 888 sample, both trading partners must follow the standard EDI processing rules. The order/location of different data elements and segments will be noted in these.
Wrapping up:
The EDI 888 – Item Maintenance ensures timely as well as traceable business communication between two trading partners. It conveys the changes in the product specifications much precisely as compared to the phone call and email. Moreover, it frees up the receiver from looking up the emails often by allowing quick data synching.
For seamless exchange of EDI documents, including EDI 888 make use of our MapMyEDI solutions. With our EDI services, fasten your business processes and boost overall efficiency.
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