This document is the EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards manual developed and made available by EAN International. It is an implementation guideline of the EDIFACT standard (Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport) developed under the auspices of the United Nations.

The EANCOM® manual should be read in conjunction with the "General EAN.UCC Specifications" manual which describes the EAN numbering and bar-coding standards. EAN Member Organisations publish specifications manuals adapted to the local needs, based on the EAN.UCC general recommendations. The list of member organisations can be found on: http://www.ean.be.

This document includes forty six standard EDI messages. All agreed non-structural change requests on the EANCOM® 1997 manual have been incorporated into the existing messages. Non-structural change requests are additions of EAN codes, new statuses of data elements, the addition of segments already in D96A, etc. Structural changes require a change to the structure of the D96A EDIFACT message. E.g. the addition of a segment which is not in D96A. The documentation has been improved by adding more comprehensive examples, adding code values to restricted code sets where appropriate and further clarifications regarding the use of codes, data elements, segments and messages.

In 1977, representatives of manufacturers and distributors in twelve European countries took the initiative to form the organisation which they called the European Article Numbering Association (EAN). As members from countries outside Europe joined however, the name was changed to International Article Numbering Association, EAN International. The EAN abbreviation has been retained to identify the numbering and symbol marking system.

A formal agreement of co-operation has been established with the Uniform Code Council (UCC), the equivalent organisation acting for USA and Canada.

Today, approximately 800,000 companies world-wide participate in the EAN.UCC system through an international network of 92 member organisations representing 94 countries from all continents.

The mission of the International Article Numbering Association, EAN, and the Member Organisations, is to take a leading role in establishing a global multi-industry system of identification and communication for products and services based on internationally accepted and business led standards.

EAN International's main activity is the development of the EAN.UCC system through the co-ordination of work carried out by its members, the Member Organisations (MOs). In addition, the interests of EAN and the MOs are represented at meetings with official bodies (such as the United Nationa and the European Commission), international associations and other institutions. Member organisations are usually national associations that provide the full EAN.UCC system implementation support, in the local language, to their member companies. Specifically, their main responsiabilities are:

• allocating numbers;
• providing training on numbering, bar coding and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI);
• supplying information on the standards and the evolution of the system.

The EAN.UCC standards include:

Standard format for trade, transport and finance transactions communicated from computer to computer.

EAN specifies standards for representing identification and supplementary data using bar codes. Three bar code symbologies are included in the EAN standards:

1. EAN/U.P.C. symbology (used exclusively to represent trade item identification)
2. Interleaved Two-of-Five (ITF - used exclusively to represent trade item identification)
3. UCC/EAN-128 (a subset of Code 128 which, throughout the use of EAN.UCC Application Identifiers, is capable of encoding all EAN.UCC identification numbers and supplementary codes).

The EAN.UCC Application Identifiers (AIs) comprise of:

Application Identifiers have been defined for international and inter-sectorial use. AIs allow simple and generic data elements to be encoded in bar code form. This in turn allows fully automated data capture and processing within computer systems.

EAN.UCC standards are used in five major areas of application which are listed below. A table of the most important Application Identifiers and a mapping for each to the segment, data element, and if relevant code value in EANCOM® is given for each area.

Please note that the tables are intended to allow the identification of the primary information mapping requirements between the EAN.UCC Application Identifiers and EANCOM®. Additional information on EAN.UCC Application Identifiers may be found in the General EAN.UCC Specifications.

Trade units are goods and services upon which there is a need to retrieve fixed information at any point in the supply chain. A trade unit is typically any unit which is priced or ordered or invoiced.

Logistic units are physical units established for transport and storage of goods of any kind which need to be tracked and traced individually in a supply chain.

A Location is anything which is, or can be addressed. Some examples of this would include companies, departments, rooms, factories, shelves, delivery points, EDI network addresses, etc.

An asset is broadly defined as anything that is owned and not traded. This definition includes individual assets of a company as well as returnable assets which may be used to transport products between organisations. Examples of assets include beer kegs, gas cylinders, chemical containers, pallets and crates.

This area comprises specific application guidelines dealing with the numbering and symbol marking of items not covered by the areas above. The applications described are generally very specific and require special consideration (e.g. coupons, refund receipts, service relationships, etc.), but are still aimed to be used in an open environment.

Many EAN Member Organisations have been approached and entrusted by their member companies to develop a standard communication system, including telecommunication facilities, allowing commercial documents such as purchase orders, delivery instructions, invoices, product information to be sent via Electronic Data Interchange to their trading partners.

The EAN EDI standard, EANCOM®, came about as a result of EDI developments among the EAN Member Organisations. In 1987 a decision was taken at the General Assembly that an international EDI standard based on EDIFACT should be developed. EAN International's EDI standard, EANCOM®, has been in existence since 1990 and this issue is the fourth release of the standard.

EAN International's objective regarding EANCOM® is to provide EAN users with a standard for national and international EDI communications. Member organisations should make EANCOM® available to their members and are encouraged to promote the concept of EANCOM® for national and international use.

EAN International's strategy regarding EANCOM® is to provide, as an integral part of the EAN.UCC system, an EDI standard which is fully compliant with UN/EDIFACT and to co-operate with EDI service providers with the objective of supporting inter-operability.

The list with the member organisations can be found on www.ean.be.