I've been in the EDI industry for more than 20 years, and during that time have touched a wide variety of applications, trading partners, and technologies. I've worked for and with some large retail organizations, distributors, and service providers, and have had the opportunity (though not always a pleasure) to implement a lot of EDI trading relationships.
My experience has given me a unique perspective on just how EDI can (or should) be done... not so much from the perspective that my new associate Cecil Wulfe sees things, but from the business perspective when it comes to designing transaction sets and EDI documents.

For my very first essay (though you may eventually come to think of these as 'rants'), I thought I would tackle the subject of Cross Docking. I attended this year's UConnect Conference where I talked with a lot of people, and I got the distinct impression that something is amiss in the design and implementation of Cross Docking. The problem may be with the understanding, or lack of... what a good cross docking implementation should be.

So, here's my take on cross docking. You are, of course, invited to contribute your opinion. Scott has implemented a new 'comment' function that lets you comment directly on the stories in ec-bp.org.

There is a growing trend in the Supply Chain world where Retailers are adding Cross Docking as a new channel of Distribution. So what is Cross docking? In its simplest form, Shipments are made to the Retailer DC, with the cartons/pallets labeled for an ultimate destination (usually a retailer's store). Some Retailers refer to this channel as Marked For, Prepack, Pre-distro, Flow through, Pre-mark or pack by store. I've worked with over 1200 different companies' EDI specifications, roughly 200 of those companies support Crossing Docking through EDI.