Roy Berndt - PERA/APRA
PERA provides information exchange of OE Engine casting identification.
www.enginedatasource.com includes the bill of materials. Major engine
parts suppliers are in the database and a partnership with Mitchell
will add specification information.
Deborah Moynes-Keshen - AIA Canada
AIA Canada has performed a case study of the financial impact of e-commerce
on the jobber level, tracking the implementation of a new online order
entry system (Activant). The project required much more hand holding
than anticipated. The association is considering a series of articles
on what to do with the various data collected in business systems.
Scott Luckett, Ed Heon, Bob Castle - AAIA
- The Product Information Exchange Standard (PIES) is in version
4.1 and the focus is now on meeting the needs of other segments
besides automotive. PIES XML schema was published in 2004. Scott
noted that CARQUEST requires a private XML scheme and efforts are
ongoing to resolve the two formats.
- The Data Audit and Certification (DAC) service was launched in
2004 to validate product data files for suppliers.
- The AAIA Catalog Enhanced Standard (ACES) includes the Vehicle
Configuration database, the Parts Classification database, the Vehicle
Qualifier database and an XML schema for date exchange. All were
updated in 2004.
- The Internet Parts Ordering (IPO) specification was based on OAGIS
XML and includes a web services transport layer. A support and testing
Portal has been developed to promote implementation of this communication
standard.
- i•SHOP version 2.0 has been released and includes XML definition
for the diagnostic results object.
Fred Iantorno - CIECA
Fred made a plea for the ACEC to become a formal organization that
tells the industry how to work together. "We need to advance the standards
faster, otherwise folks will go their own way."
CIECA was formed in 1994 to develop standards for connectivity of
Estimating Management Systems (EMS) and Insurance company systems.
Estimate and Assignment "services" have been released in
XML. The Procurement Services XML is under development. ACCORD (the
insurance agency body) has competing standard. A pilot project is
underway to resolve the two standards.
A CIECA review of IPO concluded that the collision industry needs
much more data in the standard. The collision industry needs a standardized
number to represent a business location/entity so that conversion
from one EMS system to another does not require complete conversion
of all the location data. Uniform Code Council suggests that GTIN
- Global Trade Identification Number - may serve this purpose.
CIECA standards will be embedded in Microsoft InfoPath in the next
year. InfoPath takes data out of Excel, Access and other Office tools
to form XML documents.
Chris Gardner - MEMA
The MEMA Information Services Council looked at the EDI batch services
and recommended a migration path to XML. Four (4) documents are identified
for development and are following OAGi. The
committee is reviewing IPO and AIAG ASN standards.
MISC has published and released a white paper on RFID to educate
the industry about the benefits and requirements of RFID. Some suppliers
trade with the DoD and WAL-MART, so this is becoming relevant to the
aftermarket. The whitepaper is available from www.mema.org
and www.miscouncil.org. The
group approved publishing the white paper to the ACEC Web site.
Jon Wyly, Jim Spoonhower - SEMA
Jon supports Fred's idea of formalizing the ACEC as an industry standards
organization to accelerate the process. Jon chairs a task force to
identify standards for specialty market data. SEMA largely depends
on private efforts to develop standards. Another task force is studying
the electronic conversion of paper business documents leading to a
white paper.
There was discussion of what the role should be of the ACEC. The
group agreed that the ACEC should serve the interests of all aftermarket
associations and segments. ACEC should be proactive and lead standards
development.
Edward Kuo - HDx
HDx focuses on the e-commerce needs of small and medium size businesses
primarily in the heavy-duty market. HDx published PCFS (Price Communication
File Specification) - a subset of the PIES standard used to exchange
product data in a flat-file format. A petition is pending before AAIA
for the addition of HD-specific fields to the PIES spec.
852/855 draft documents are under review. Basic XML e-commerce documents
are under development. HDx is very interested in a data warehouse
and believe smaller companies would benefit. They are working with
TMC and AIAG to standardize fleet-related transactions.
HDx will closely monitor the XML EDI development
activities of the MEMA Information Services Council to ensure the
heavy duty segment does not create redundant or overlapping standards.
Jim Petragnani - Uniform Code Council
Jim presented an overview of the EAN.UCC and the standards that they
govern.
The EAN-UCC family includes EAN-UCC system, EPCglobal, RosettaNet,
UNSPSC and implementation support through UCCnet and StandardReady.
- 2D technology is used to identify heavy equipment (DoD endorsed).
- Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is an umbrella term that refers
to EAN/UCC14, UPC, and other product identification data structures.
- Global Location Number (GLN) a unique 13-digit ID that refers
to physical locations, functional and legal entities.
- Sunrise - effective Jan 1, 2005 POS systems in the US and Canada
will be required to read EAN-8 and EAN-13 in addition to UPC-12.
- UNSPSC & Global Product Classification (GPC) - UNSPSC includes
Segment (an industry segmentation), Family (a broad division) and
Class (a group of like categories) and the Brick (The Global Product
Classification).
- RFID and EPCglobal (Electronic Product Code)
- The Auto-ID center at MIT is still responsible for continued
research.
- EPCglobal develops standards and manages adoption.
- EPCglobal enables Track and Trace Technology (in the food
chain as well as the supply chain).
- Components of the EPC:
- Header
- EPC Manager (owner number assigned by EAC.UCC)
- Object Class (assigned by owner)
- Serial Number (makes every EPC unique)
- GTIN and EAN.UCC keys can be used to construct EPC numbers
- Name change effective Jan 1, 2005 to GS1
Bob Moore - Bob Moore & Partners
Speaking on behalf of Mike Williams, Jon Wyly and Jerry McCabe, Bob
presented the case for an industry data warehouse for the aftermarket.
Follow-up Discussion -
Q) How long will this take to reach fruition?
A) If we get the buy-in of major stakeholders, it could take 1 year.
Ed Murovic - Vehicle Specialty "is already building exactly
what you have described" in the Linux model - open source.
Q) How do you ensure greater accuracy when it is impossible to
look at every piece of data?
A) Giving the final authority to the manufacturer is an improvement
A) It does not ensure accuracy. It does afford faster remediation.
A) There is opportunity for competition among the Validation Services
to provide validation of the accuracy as well as the syntax.
Q) This sounds good for the big guys, but do we need to announce
a future date by which small and medium sized companies must comply
or be shut out.
A) Many companies use the services of a third party data service
provider.
Al Jones - we should do a white paper to brief the association executives
with pros and cons. Take Bob's presentation and flesh it out for the
information of the executives.
Ed M - it has to be done quickly or others will do it by themselves.
And there are 70 suppliers who can do this themselves and hundreds
of small guys whose idea of technology is an Excel spreadsheet. The
feasibility study must include the needs of the small business.
Jerry M - much of the delay is due to a lack of infrastructure (broadband,
etc).
Fred I - suggests that all organizations in attendance endorse ACT
Bob Castle - Everything comes back to recommendation that the Feasibility
and Requirements study get funded and go forward.
Deborah - clearly the study must go forward.
Roy - distribute the PPT to all attendees.
Action items:
- Distribute the slide presentation with full script. Bob will distribute
by the end of August.
- Encourage the association executives to fund a requirements and
feasibility study to be performed by an impartial party with industry
oversight.
- Announce the funding of the study at AAPEX with a press release
- Make the PR under the ACEC name
- Have each participating association echo the release to their
members and press contacts.
Next meeting - Wednesday, November 3 at Industry Week. Working
lunch 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Major Agenda items:
- Update on activities relative to IDW
- What is the role and governance of ACEC
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