Editel wants to strengthen the domestic supply industry

Editel wants to strengthen the domestic supply industry

According to “ARGE Automotive Zulieferindustrie” in Austria, around 900 companies are directly active in the automotive supply industry. Large suppliers to the car companies (OEM) have long been using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), while sub-suppliers still have some time to go. Gerd Marlovits, managing director of the EDI service provider Editel (picture), is convinced: “There will be no way around EDI in the future, because every report about an interrupted supply chain will further strengthen the trend towards EDI.” Editel, as a technical partner of numerous automobile companies, would now like to launch an educational offensive.

As the  Data  The ARGE Automotive Supplier Industry show that 74 percent of Austrian automotive suppliers operate at the Tier 2 level (tiers are upstream suppliers) by supplying other companies at the Tier 1 level. However, 61 percent of the suppliers (also) directly supply the large vehicle manufacturers (OEM) and are therefore assigned to the Tier 1 level. Tier 1 are usually module and system suppliers, Tier 2 are more likely component or parts manufacturers. Since around 30,000 parts are required to build a car, depending on the model, countless suppliers and sub-suppliers are naturally involved. In addition, for reasons of security of supply, components are often purchased from different suppliers and from different countries.

"A total of more than 20,000 companies from a wide range of industries are already connected to our eXite data hub, with demand from the automotive industry having increased noticeably recently. In times of supply chain problems, more and more automotive suppliers want to digitize their supply chain processes," explains Gerd Marlovits. On the one hand, because the topic is becoming increasingly important for vehicle manufacturers, and on the other hand, EDI increases data quality, planning security and cost efficiency for everyone involved along the entire supply chain. EDI business documents, such as delivery call-offs, delivery announcements, delivery notes, goods receipt confirmations or invoices, are exchanged electronically.

"Our automotive division is developing extremely dynamically. Due to the high demand, this area is very important to us," says Marlovits. The international EDI service provider with more than 40 years of experience supports hundreds of well-known companies from the automotive sector (Toyota, Skoda, Panasonic, Alpine, ...).  “We are also seeing an increasing need for professional, digital solutions in Austria, where there are many successful industrial companies in the automotive sector,” continues Marlovits.

Because of the precisely scheduled production processes, the automotive industry places particularly high demands on data quality and is therefore constantly pushing innovations forward. “For all companies that have a direct business relationship with an OEM, EDI has long been an essential part of the collaboration,” explains Marlovits. “And this trend is gradually continuing with the upstream suppliers, the so-called tiers.”

EDI is also an important success factor in just-in-time production, where parts and components are delivered on time and in exact quantities, as well as in just-in-sequence production, where the assembly sequence is also precisely timed with the suppliers. "The ideal way to connect to procurement logistics is EDI integration into the ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning). However, for smaller companies there are web portals that meet all the basic requirements of business partners," explains Marlovits. The experts from Editel will be showing on April 7, 2022 as part of a  free webinars  EDI possibilities based on the requirements of the major players in the automotive sector.