Business-to-business technology specialist Seeburger has updated its WebEDI partner portal for automotive companies, with enhanced functionality to meet MMOG/LE specifications.
MMOG/LE, or materials management operations guidelines/logistics evaluation, is a compilation of best practices against which automotive supplier companies can rate their material handling and logistics procedures. The guideline is a cooperative effort of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in the United States — the originator of the materials management operations benchmark — and Odette International Ltd. in Europe, which contributed its logistics evaluation to the standard.
In their respective geographies, the benchmarks emerged just before the turn of the century as a means of simplifying the assessment process for automotive suppliers and the OEMs they serve. In 2004, Odette and AIAG combined the two to form a global document. Many automotive OEMs now require their suppliers to assess their materials handling and logistics proficiency through MMOG/LE, and use a company's score to gauge its attractiveness as a partner. (For more on MMOG/LE procedures, see this article.)
With that in mind, Seeburger has expanded its WebEDI portal offering with capabilities for inventory monitoring, material tag generation, and integration with third-party logistics providers (3PLs).
The inventory monitoring upgrade gives suppliers a near-real-time view into their OEM's parts supply, courtesy of the OEM's ERP system. If a supplier notices that parts levels are nearing a minimum threshold, for example, it can take steps to replenish the stock.
Seeburger has also integrated a bar-code generator into the revamped WebEDI portal, which lets suppliers create AIAG B10-compliant material tags within the portal itself, to be printed and applied to component parts, shipping boxes, or pallets.
In addition, enhanced data integration capabilities in the newest version aggregate information from 3PLs on delivery pickups and deliveries for shipments that do not go directly to the OEM. The portal can show a supplier the 3PL's demand messages and integrate that data with schedules from the OEM.
Taken together, the new features should pave the way for automotive suppliers to improve their MMOG/LE rankings and thus their attractiveness to OEMs, Seeburger officials said in a statement.
"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," according to Scott Lewin, head of Seeburger's U.S. division.
Customers can deploy the WebEDI portal on its own or in tandem with Seeburger's B2B Gateway. The gateway features three core applications: BIS Roll Out Services, which helps companies bring suppliers onto its B2B platform; BIS Partner Self-Service, for more automated change management within the system; and BIS Insight, for transaction monitoring. The Roll Out Services and Partner Self Services modules made their first appearance in the latest release of the B2B Gateway, announced earlier this summer.
Other software vendors are also recognizing the growing importance of MMOG/LE to their automotive customers; QAD, for instance, provides this functionality in its QAD Enterprise Applications 2007 Automotive Edition, released last month.