HONDA USA

Since 2014, Honda USA has required an extremely comprehensive logistics process for material procurement based on ANSI X12 - EDI messages. The requirements relate to the supply of plants in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
Honda USA's specifications are among the most demanding OEM processes for suppliers. As with most OEMs, there are specifications for data exchange and labels.

But Honda USA stands out for several reasons:

• Honda USA has a particularly large number of specifications: The official guidelines contain comprehensive specifications for almost every detail and a wide variety of delivery processes.
• Many of the specifications are specific to Honda USA and cannot be found in this form at any other OEM.
• The guidelines are complex, difficult to understand and therefore time-consuming to implement.
• There is a strikingly large number of different EDI messages and many different additional data that are not provided for in most OEM processes. Some of these have control functions in the shipping and packaging processes and must be reflected in the ASN, on the respective labels and on the master packing list.
• Suppliers must take into account special invoicing logic, which is particularly necessary for partial deliveries or overdeliveries in order to be able to correctly determine the subsequent requirements.
• Many specifications do not match the actual ANSI X12 Transaction Set (e.g. specifications for individual orders for call-off processing). However, these must still be set up.
• There are some special features that are difficult to implement, especially on the system side (for example, order changes to an ANSI X12 850 from Honda USA are not transmitted as an ANSI X12 860 order change as usual, but also as an 850 message).
• Honda USA uses numerous different labels and forms.
• Even the loading sequence of trucks is specified by a LOT Sequence Number for certain delivery scopes.

In addition, Honda USA uses a comprehensive validation process to ensure that suppliers can comply with all specifications. Test scenarios are also used to check processes that may not be used in practice by individual suppliers. The entire validation process takes a year at best, but can also extend over a longer period of time.