EDI Solutions for Vendor Managed Inventory

The Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) business model is a shift from the traditional purchase order placed by a buyer ordering products from the manufacturer, to allowing the manufacturer to send suggestion replenishment orders based on their own data and knowledge of product proformance. Giving the manufacturer more say into the inventory levels the retailer will carry. 

Although this is handled differently by different retailers, the below scenario is the most common in the EDI world: 

• The supplier sends 852 point of sale information describing how the products are performing at each location.
• The manufacturer submits an 855 purchase order acknowledgment giving the buyer a suggested purchase order. This will include the quantity of each product at each point of sale location.
• The buyer receives the suggested order, makes changes as needed, and sends back the usual 850 purchase order formally ordering the product.
• All other documents (855/856/810) required by the retailer stay the same through the rest of the order fulfillment.

The VMI model for ordering products can pose problems to tradional ERP systems that do not have the capability of creating suggested orders. Because of this, Xebec has developed an easy to use portal for creating these 855 VMI orders with your retailer which will not affect your current document exchange systems. We will help you load the list of ship to locations for your retailer as well as your catalog of products into our tables, and the rest is as easy as filling in a spreadsheet with your suggested quantities.

So whether you are currently trading documents with the retailer and just need to add the 855 and 852, or you need all the docuemnts your new VMI trading partner requires, Xebec has the solution to get you live quickly.