Electronic data exchange with KV Nagel

With a finely meshed network of locations and partners, KV Nagel (Nagel Group | Kraftverkehr Nagel SE & Co. KG) is one of Europe’s leading food logistics providers and the no. 1 in Germany.By using electronic data interchange (EDI), KV Nagel offers its customers an almost limitless exchange of information. According to the company’s own information, around 50,000 interface files are currently exchanged with customers and partners every day.From order placement and status reporting to invoicing, KV Nagel implements all relevant interfaces in the areas of transport and warehouse management and supports e.g., EDIFACT, EANCOM, and SAP IDocs, along with custom formats on customer request.

KV Nagel is one of the most important food logistics companies in Europe, especially in the frozen goods segment, and began early on to use the advantages of a functioning EDI data exchange to organize and handle the smooth processing of goods movements in the frozen food sector. Manufacturers of frozen goods, in particular, depend on functioning transport logistics that ensure that the entire cold chain is maintained. This applies from production and transport to external cold stores and delivery.The consignees are predominantly at home in the retail sector.

Many producers respond to the trade’s required availabilities by using extensive storage capacities at large frozen transport specialists such as Kraftverkehr Nagel. The complex flow of goods between the producer, the external warehouse, and the customer is increasingly being automated and optimized through EDI logistics processes. Although KV Nagel still offers willing customers the use of the old FORTRAS EDI data formats, a look at the EDI formats used in current projects shows that these are no longer adequate for the integration of modern logistics scenarios involving warehouse management processes. Therefore, in EDI practice, only the conventional BORDERO shipping order is typically still found as an alternative to the more contemporary IFTMIN EDIFACT format.

For manufacturers of frozen goods, KV Nagel uses logistics-specific EDI formats that enable the complex management and integration of external warehouse capacities.Nagel uses modern, powerful, and scalable systems at its sites and at the company headquarters. Continuous 24/7 support is available to the organization for all IT areas. The e-logistics Portal makes the relevant Nagel processes available to users while ensuring the necessary security and performance.

Many of the EDI processes listed are related to the control and automated management of external warehouse capacity at KV Nagel. In this context, an EDIFACT message type such as the outgoing DESADV can certainly be used for mapping different logistics subprocesses, for example in the form of order-related delivery orders, delivery-related delivery notices, or the confirmation of packing instructions. The type of use and the characteristics of the EDI processes used in each case are highly customer and project-specific and can vary considerably depending on the requirements profile and scope of the services booked.

This example illustrates that logistics service providers such as KV Nagel offer a high degree of flexibility and integration depth in their EDI processes; this extends to the genesis and provision of customized logistics applications for the major branded companies.However, the logistics industry is faced with high cost pressure. To avoid additional costs when using X.400 networks of VAN providers, communication paths such as AS2 or FTP/sFTP are used almost exclusively.