EANCOM PART I : EANCOM & EDIFACT

1. OVERVIEW

1.1 Introduction

This document is the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards manual developed and made available by EAN International. It is an implementation guideline of the EDIFACT standard (Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport) developed under the auspices of the United Nations.

The EANCOM manual should be read in conjunction with the "General EAN Specifications" manual which describes the EAN numbering and bar-coding standards. EAN Numbering Organisations publish specifications manuals adapted to the local needs, based on the EAN general recommendations. The current list of EAN Numbering Organisations is appended.

This document replaces the EANCOM manual published on 31st of March 1994 and it includes forty two standard EDI messages. All agreed change requests on the EANCOM 1994 manual have been incorporated into the existing messages. The documentation has been improved by adding more comprehensive examples, adding code values to restricted code sets where appropriate and further clarifications regarding the use of codes, data elements, segments and messages.

According to the rules agreed within EAN (see section 3.2.), the new version of the EANCOM manual must be implemented by user companies not later than one year after publication.

The 1997 version of EANCOM will remain stable for a minimum period of two years.

1.2 About EAN International

In 1977, representatives of manufacturers and distributors in twelve European countries took the initiative to form the organisation which they called the European Article Numbering Association (EAN). As members from countries outside Europe joined however, the name was changed to International Article Numbering Association, EAN International. The EAN abbreviation has been retained to identify the numbering and symbol marking system.

Today, approximately 350,000 companies world-wide participate in the EAN system through an international network of 78 Numbering Organisations representing 84 countries from all continents. EAN International is a fully independent organisation.

A formal agreement of co-operation has been established with the Uniform Code Council (UCC), the equivalent organisation acting for USA and Canada. UCC has currently a membership of approximately 200,000 companies.

As a result of this co-operation with UCC a number of common committees exist between EAN International and UCC. A prime example of such a committee is the International Data and Application Standards Committee (IDASC) which aims to ensure a consistent and technically sound development of the EAN/UCC system.

Since 1995 UCC have had a formal representation on the EAN International Communication Systems Committee (CSC), the committee responsible for the maintenance and development of EANCOM. In 1996 UCC will issue the first release of their Global EDI guides (GEDI) which detail the use of several key EANCOM messages in an North American environment.

1.3 EAN Mission Statement

The mission of the International Article Numbering Association, EAN, and the Numbering Organisations, is to take a leading role in establishing a global multi-industry system of identification and communication for products and services based on internationally accepted and business led standards.

The objective is to improve the efficiency of integrated logistics while contributing added value to partners involved, as well as to consumers.

EAN organisational structure

The General Assembly, at which all member Numbering Organisations have voting rights, takes place at least once a year. It determines EAN objectives and strategies and the operational plans to achieve the defined policies.

The Management Board with a representation from industry, trade and numbering organisations meets at least three times a year and is the body responsible for the decision and final approval of all technical matters, as well as for the association's organisational issues.

The Management Board receives inputs from the Numbering Organisation's Managers Meeting which meets once a year. In addition a Regional Numbering Organisation Managers Meetings take place on average once per year where technical and other issues relevant to that region are discussed.

Specific issues are entrusted to expert working parties. The Technical Systems Committee handles the developments of coding and bar-coding standards. The International Data and Application Standards Committee (IDASC) is a joint EAN/UCC committee taking care of the global compatibility of the EAN & UCC standards. The Communication Systems Committee concentrates on EDI matters and more specifically on the development of EANCOM.

The Secretariat is located in Brussels, Belgium, where EAN is registered as a not for profit international association under Belgian law. The working language is English.

Liaison is established and in some cases formal agreements have been made with a number of international organisations, such as:

• European Commission (EC)
• Automatic Identification Manufacturers Association (AIM)
• European Committee for Standardisation (CEN)
• International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO)
• United Nations, Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE)
• European Board for EDI Standardisation (EBES)
• Pan-American EDIFACT Board (PAEB)
• Asian EDIFACT Board (ASEB)
• Australia/New Zealand EDIFACT Board (AZEB)
• International Standard Book Numbering (ISBN)
• International Standard Serials Numbering (ISSN)
• Industry EDI Groups (e.g. CEFIC, ODETTE, EDIFICE, EMEDI, EDItEUR)

1.4 EAN standards

The International Article Numbering Association EAN standards include:

• Standard identification of trade items (goods and services), logistic units, locations and assets and other specialist applications;
• Standard bar code formats to allow the automatic and secure capture of the standard identification;
• Standard supplementary codes to encode variable data, in addition to the identification, in bar code form;
• Standard format for trade, transport and finance transactions communicated from computer to computer.

1.5 Bar coding standards

EAN specifies standards for representing identification and supplementary data using bar codes. Three bar code symbologies are included in the EAN standards:

1. EAN/U.P.C. symbology (used exclusively to represent trade item identification)
2. Interleaved Two-of-Five (ITF - used exclusively to represent trade item identification)
3. UCC/EAN-128 (a subset of Code 128 which, throughout the use of UCC/EAN Application Identifiers, is capable of encoding all EAN identification numbers and supplementary codes).

1.6 UCC/EAN Application Identifiers in EANCOM

The UCC/EAN Application Identifiers (AIs) comprise of:

• standard format and definition for each relevant data element;
• application identifiers used as a prefix to the data elements represented in bar coded form;
• a bar code symbology specifically dedicated to encoding AIs: UCC/EAN-128.

Application Identifiers have been defined for international and inter-sectorial use. AIs allow simple and generic data elements to be encoded in bar code form. This in turn allows fully automated data capture and processing within computer systems.

EAN standards are used in five major areas of application which are listed below. A table of the most important Application Identifiers and a mapping for each to the segment, data element, and if relevant code value in EANCOM is given for each area.

Please note that the tables are intended to allow the identification of the primary information mapping requirements between the UCC/EAN Application Identifiers and EANCOM. Additional information on UCC/EAN Application Identifiers may be found in the General EAN Specifications.

1.6.1 Application Identifiers related to Trade units

Trade units are goods and services upon which there is a need to retrieve fixed information at any point in the supply chain. A trade unit is typically any unit which is priced or ordered or invoiced.

1.6.2 Application Identifiers related to Logistic units

Logistic units are physical units established for transport and storage of goods of any kind which need to be tracked and traced individually in a supply chain.

1.6.3 Application Identifiers related to Locations

A Location is anything which is, or can be addressed. Some examples of this would include companies, departments, rooms, factories, shelves, delivery points, EDI network addresses, etc.

1.6.4 Application Identifiers related to Assets (including returnable containers)

An asset is broadly defined as anything that is owned and not traded. This definition includes individual assets of a company as well as returnable assets which may be used to transport products between organisations. Examples of assets include beer kegs, gas cylinders, chemical containers, pallets and crates.

1.6.5 Other applications

This area comprises specific application guidelines dealing with the numbering and symbol marking of items not covered by the areas above. The applications described are generally very specific and require special consideration (e.g. coupons, refund receipts, service relationships, etc.), but are still aimed to be used in an open environment.

1.7 EDI Standards

Many EAN Numbering Organisations have been approached and entrusted by their member companies to develop a standard communication system, including telecommunication facilities, allowing commercial documents such as purchase orders, delivery instructions, invoices, product information to be sent via Electronic Data Interchange to their trading partners.

The EAN International EDI standard, EANCOM, came about as a result of EDI developments among the EAN Numbering Organisations. In 1987 a decision was taken at the General Assembly that an international EDI standard based on EDIFACT should be developed. EAN International's EDI standard, EANCOM, has been in existence since 1990 and this issue is the fourth release of the standard.

1.8 EANCOM objective and strategy

EAN International's objective regarding EANCOM is to provide EAN users with a standard for national and international EDI communications. Numbering organisations should make EANCOM available to their members and are encouraged to promote the concept of EANCOM for national and international use.

EAN International's strategy regarding EANCOM is to provide, as an integral part of the EAN system, an EDI standard which is fully compliant with UN/EDIFACT and to co-operate with EDI service providers with the objective of supporting inter-operability

1.9 The Communication Systems Committee

The development of the EANCOM standard is performed by the EAN Communication Systems Committee whose members are experts in EDI technical matters and who have access to experts in their Numbering Organisations.

The Communication Systems Committee deals with the following :

1. To provide EAN users with a practical, multi-industry EDI standard: EANCOM.
2. To achieve this by defining Standard Implementation Guidelines of United Nations Standard Messages (UNSM's).
3. To define such agreements primarily to meet the needs of users for international EDI, but to take account of the requirements for national standards for domestic use to be compatible with the international standard.
4. To monitor EDIFACT developments and to use the information gathered to guide EANCOM work.
5. To influence EDIFACT developments, through the appropriate EDIFACT working groups, so that the requirements of the EAN community, through EANCOM, are compatible with the general standards. To draft proposed UNSM's if required.
6. To produce explanatory documentation to support implementation of the EANCOM standards by the EAN community.
7. To develop clear and informative descriptions of the EANCOM standards. To create awareness of the standards amongst both the EAN community and other opinion formers including governmental authorities, network providers and the media.
8. To assist Numbering Organisations in co-ordinating exchange partnerships internationally if required.
9. To propose EAN policy regarding use of Value Added Networks (VAN) and to liaise with VAN suppliers.
10. To liaise with the EAN Technical Committee to ensure that coding rules used in EANCOM are consistent across all strands of EAN work.

Appendix: EAN MEMBER LIST

(c) Copyright EAN 1997