FIDX Approves More Home Furnishings Industry Standards

Furniture World Magazine

The Furniture Industry Data Exchange (FIDX) group has approved three more XML schemas as home furnishings industry standards for business transactions. At its latest meeting in Charlotte on July 24, 2001, the group reviewed schemas for purchase order acknowledgement, invoice, and advance ship notice transactions. The group gave unanimous approval to all three schemas, subject to a small number of modifications. The July action follows the group's May 2001 approval of schemas for purchase order and catalog. Thomasville, Broyhill, Century, Ashley, La-Z-Boy, Stanley, and Lifestyle Furnishings International were among manufacturers represented in the group of nearly 40 attendees. Other participants included retailers such as Federated Department Stores and Marshall Field's, and companies providing infrastructure support and products to the home furnishings industry, such as B2B exchange provider FurnishNet, retail system supplier Storis Management Systems, and electronic catalog vendor Micro*D. Representatives from the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, the National Home Furnishings Association, and Home Furnishings International Association were also present. The schemas and detailed documentation were posted on the FIDX web site (http://www.fldx.org for public comment for several weeks prior to the meeting. Geoff Mack, Senior Systems Analyst of FurnishNet, authored the three new schemas and made detailed presentations of each. "It can be challenging getting consensus from such a large number of enterprises, but it's vitally important for the industry to come together like this to be able to realize the savings and process streamlining that come with real standards," said Mack. "It's a lot of work, but it's worth it." "As soon as the final changes are put in place, these standards will be ready for use," said Jeff Baker, Chief Operating Officer at Carl's Furniture and a member of the FIDX executive committee. FIDX will also submit the standards to the Uniform Code Council (UCC) for approval. "We want to be sure we're producing standards that are compatible with the work being done by the UCC," said Baker. "So far they've been very complimentary of the materials we've submitted to them." Several companies declared their intention to support the standards in the near future. Theresa Jaynes, E-Commerce/Special Projects Manager, Century Furniture, said, "We intend to begin implementation of these standards with our suppliers as early as August, and we'll move forward using them with our customers in the coming months." Ron Martell, CEO of Micro*D, added, "Our goal is to have support for the standards in place by the October (High Point) market." Mary Frye, president of Home Furnishings International Association and chairman of FIDX, noted, "In an industry known for its fragmentation, it is encouraging to see what has been accomplished by this group in a relatively short amount of time, working for the good of our whole industry. While the actual work of FIDX is technical, the results will be readily understood - a more efficient supply chain." Frye added, "We are challenged as an industry to meet consumers' expectations - to produce the furnishings they have selected and deliver those furnishings in a reasonable amount of time. To do this, our processes must improve, and those improvements come through creating standard ways to send information electronically." According to Dwight Ball, Information Services Director at Rose Furniture Co., High Point, and a FIDX member who has been coordinating the group's meetings, the next project will be to create standards for order status request/response and inventory availability request/response. Transaction envelope and functional acknowledgement schemas are also scheduled for the next session.