Fujitsu develops EDI shared operating platform for food distribution industry

Promoting cooperation in the food distribution industry by standardizing processes

Fujitsu Limited

Tokyo, October 6, 2023

Fujitsu today announced that it has been chosen as one of the vendors to construct a new shared operating platform for the food delivery industry within an initiative led by the Japan Processed Foods Wholesalers Association ⁽¹⁾ and Japan Inforex, Inc. ⁽²⁾ (hereinafter JII). As part of this initiative that aims to improve cooperation and collaboration in non-competitive areas in the food distribution industry, Fujitsu constructed an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) shared operating platform to support food distributors in standardizing operations. JII started operations of the new platform developed by Fujitsu for food distribution companies in Japan participating in the initiative on October 1, 2023.

The initiative was originally announced by the Japan Processed Foods Wholesalers Association on May 26, 2023, and was followed by a basic agreement between JII and food wholesalers affiliated with JII to promote the introduction of a standardized format based on an EDI shared operating platform and Distribution Business Message Standards (BMS) ⁽³⁾, which enable food distributors to jointly use functions common to their systems.

This standardization can help food distributors to reduce system development costs and respond faster to legal revisions.

Moving forward, Fujitsu will continue to introduce the new EDI platform to businesses in the food delivery industry, promote standardized formats and operations, and work together with the Japan Food Industry Association, JII, and food wholesalers to contribute to the solution of problems in the food distribution industry and promote DX.

Background

Efficient communication with partners, customers and suppliers represents an important task for businesses in the food distribution industry. Previous attempts within the industry to develop EDI systems for data exchange with various companies in the ordering and supplying process of food products, however, often led to system complexity and increased development costs.

To address this issue, Fujitsu developed an EDI shared operating platform that enables food distributors to jointly use functions common to different food wholesalers, thereby supporting businesses in reducing costs and workloads related to system development and legal revisions.

Overview of the EDI shared operating platform

Fujitsu, which was selected as one of the vendors of the EDI shared operating infrastructure within this initiative, constructed an EDI shared operating platform utilizing one of the largest EDI service infrastructures in Japan developed by Fujitsu.

The EDI service infrastructure enables flexible responses to changes in the EDI environment including legal revisions, ensures fast and reliable connections with trading partners as well as high availability, ultimately offering safe and secure service operations on the EDI shared operating platform.

Image of the EDI shared operating platform

• [1]
  Japan Processed Foods Wholesalers Association :
  Headquarters: Chuo Ward, Tokyo, Japan; Chairperson: Akira Kokubu
• [2]
  Japan Inforex, Inc. :
  Head office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Kunio Nishida
• [3]
  Distribution Business Message Standards (BMS) :
  New EDI standards that can be used uniformly by companies in the distribution industry.

Related Links

• Notice of Conclusion of Basic Agreement on Building EDI Platform (news release Japan Processed Food Wholesale Association, May 26, 2923) (in Japanese)

Fujitsu’s Commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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