EDI has a huge financial impact on the M&R process – massive cost savings to be made

Real Asset Management’s Repair4000 module fully supports incoming EDI messages and is helping customers to make substantial cost savings across the entire Maintenance & Repair process.

Without EDI, maintenance and repair lines must be entered manually using faxes or emails from various depots.  This is a labour intensive process and relies upon an administrator to summarise tens or often hundreds of lines because it is too costly to type out every single line of detail.

If on the other hand the information is imported via EDI, every single line of detailed information is automatically entered into the system.  The benefits of this process are significant.  It reduces costs by cutting administration time and enables companies to re-bill their customers more quickly and accurately.  As the information is updated at the point of the EDI transaction, off-hired units are immediately flagged as available, allowing a quicker turnaround time and more efficient fleet utilisation.  The manual process has a delay between the time the information is received and the input of data into the system.

The improved level of information stored in the system as a result of EDI allows managers to drill down amongst the cost data for detailed analysis.  Turnaround time and repair costs can then be reviewed and badly performing depots are highlighted.  Appropriate action can then be taken to improve efficiency once again.

EDI is now common place in the intermodal industry but is it important to have systems in place with functionality that can take full advantage of its benefits.  For more information on Real Asset Management’s Repair4000, please contact solution@realassetmgt.com