ANSI X12:

Information Management

Richard Ferguson is president of The Skylonda Group, Inc.. an environmental informion systems Aegrator located in Palo Alro, California.

DATA STANDARDS FOR TQEM Richard Ferguson

One key development in environmental software is the adoption o fa common electronic language for exchanging EH&S data. The ANSI XI2-based data manage- ment tools offer compatibility across plaform within the company as well as between digerent companies. The XI2 syntax makes it easy for environmental managers to integrate functions more closely with either materials management or quality management systems.

THANKS TO THE ADOPTION of uniform national computer data standards known as ANSI X12, EH&S software operating on any platform can be linked quickly and inexpensively to support other computer-based QM goals: higher customer satisfac- tion, lower cost, and better productivity.

Computer software and information systems for environmental management have been changing for reasons of their own. One key development is the growing use of a common electronic language for exchanging EH&S data. But X12-based software and information systems had already come into use among suppliers and customers for computer-aided exchanges of product quality data. The happy result is that existing X12-compatible information systems for both product quality management and materials management can work directly wilh X12-compatible information systems for environmental management.

KEY TRENDS IN SOFTWARE The EH&S software and information systems of the 1990s are becoming

integral parts of larger software systems being installed for materials management and process control. Software buyers and designers are changing their systems for three major reasons.

First, the rules are changing. The old-style environmental regulations imposed end-of-pipe discharge limits and required reports on end-of-pipe measurements. Since 1986, SARATitle I11 and other pollution-prevention rules attach more global questions about long lists of specific materials acquired for production inventory and about the many process conversions along the way toward ultimate disposal. The new rules have become materials-management rules instead of end-of-pipe rules. They invite the recasting of environmental legalisms into ordinary materials management practices-and software designs are beginning to reflect the changing paradigm.

Second, multiple levels of government agencies imposed different rules and standards on company uses of ever-longer lists of specific regulated substances. Partly an artifact of the absence of uniform federal leadership in the early 1980s the multiplicity of rules from different program offices in various jurisdictions generally created a problem of integration and coordination for the single plant manager affected by all of the rules. While government agencies paid lip service to “cross-program” or “cross-media” integration, plant managers had to find ways to

TOTAL. Q u m ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEME~ISPRNG 1992 261

RICHARD FERGUSON

. . . awaiting the environmental manager who wishes to integrate functions more closely with either materials management or quality management systems is a set of Xl2-based data management tools.

accomplish such integrated environmental management. One common theme among those that succeeded is greater use of materials-inventory and materials-tracking software and information systems.

Third, government agencies recently began adopting electronic reporting tech- nology to reduce both paperwork cost and data entry error (federal IRS, Massachu- setts Hazardous Waste, Texas Air Emissions Inventory). To forestall the prolifera- tion of incompatible electronic formats by different program offices eager to capture the benefits of computer software-and avoid carrying the same incompatibility baggage of their paper forms into the world of electronic filing-the U.S. EPA and its support contractor, The Skylonda Group Incorporated, examined alternative electronic formats and standards that might be used uniformly. Rather than inventing still another syntax or computer standards system, in July 1990 EPA adopted a policy to use industry’s own popular standards for exchanging commercial and technical business data: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards promulgated by the XI2 @ata Interchange Standards) Committee accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). [ S e e p. 264, “What Are the ANSI X12 Standards?”]

THE HAPPY SURPRISE A happy surprise awaited the first few companies to join the XI2 Committee and

examine the application of existing X12 standards to EH&S tasks in 1990. The X12 Subcommittee on Product Data had already approved not only a fully-structured electronic format for Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) transfers, but also a suite of electronic formats for quality-management messages, ranging from electronic specification sheets to nonconformance reports to warranty transactions-not to mention a separate set of formats for just-in-time inventory management among suppliers!

In other words, awaiting the environmental manager who wishes to integrate functions more closely with either materials management or quality management systems is a set of XlZbased data management tools. The tools are already invented and offer compatibility across platforms within the company as well as between different companies. A new industry association has sprung up to maintain the standards and encourage others to examine and implement these new software standards-the Environment and Safety Data Exchange (ESDX), with more than seventy-five member firms.

UNDERSTANDING THE ANSI X12 DATA STANDARD^ C O M M ~ E E The X12 Committee and its predecessor entities have been developing, main-

taining, and expanding the use of electronic data standards fordecades. Business data interchanges commonly in use today include inventory inquiries, purchase orders, shipping notices and manifests, and invoicing and payment transactions. Inter- change standards now in development range from medical insurance claims process- ing to school district student transcript exchanges to state tax reporting to consumer product warranty claims-and-repair processing. More than 20.000 companies use X12 standards on all computer platforms to do millions of electronic transactions a year, with values as high as millions of dollars per transaction.

Technical and business experts from more than 500 companies in virtually all industry sectors serve on the X12 Committee on a volunteer basis and adopt new standards by consensus. X12 is organized into subcommittees defined by either major application area or industry group: for example, there are subcommittees for purchasing, finance, transportation. materials management, government, and prod-

262 TUTAL Q u m ENVIRONMEMTAL MANAGEMENTISPRING 1992

ANSI X12: DATA STANDARDS FOR TQEM

In any given company, the likeliest place to jind someone familiar with X12 standards and software is usually the purchasing or accounting department.. .

uct data. But a given company does not need to join or work on the X12 Committee to make use of X12 standards for software and data exchanges. X12 software is available on all platforms and at all price ranges, like any other computer-based business information tool. In any given company, the likeliest place to find someone familiar with XI2 standards and software is usually the purchasing or accounting department, where the financial management information system of a company usually first met the system for managing materials information years ago.

During the 198Os, as firms adopted XIZbased data exchanges with more and more suppliers or customers for routine purchasing and shipping purposes, they learned that the transition to all-electronic systems brought cost savings, data- quality improvements, and tighter integration with their electronic trading partners. It was only amatter of time before the demands of quality managers on the supplier- customer relationship would show up as demands for new quality-management functionality in the X12 electronic messages.

Quarry MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENTS It helps to examine the electronic message standards that were developed by the

industry members of X12 for quality management purposes before looking at their environmental implications.

Some of the key features of quality management as practiced in American industry today are:

1. IncorporationofQMvalues andmeasurableperformancestandards through- out the company culture;

2. Cutting design and market cycle time and matching the cuts with equally adept manufacturing responsiveness;

3. Integrating suppliers and customers (both internal and external) along quality dimensions; and

4. Using QM technology (such as computer-aided SPC) for finding, control- ling, and tolerating variation both in customer needs and in manufacturing or service delivery.

THE ANSI x12 STANDARDS FOR TQEM

plishing each of the following quality management functions. The X12 standards include electronic messages and data formats for accom-

SETTING QUAUTY STANDARDS X12 Transaction Set 841 is the “Specifications,Techical Information” docu-

ment. It can include an overall assembly model, a process specification, or specifi- cations for an individual component or raw material. Some of the key segments in the 841 provide electronic pigeonholes forclusters of related data items on: Revision Date, Customs, Contact Persons, Product Characteristics, Measurements, Military Standards. Test Methods, Physical Sample Description, Sampling Parameters, and provisions for industry-specific code-table values.

The X12 committee members most interested in using computer systems for overall quality management added more power and specificity to the data-item structure for statistics in the 841. Within one such 841 document, one or more of these segments can be looped repeatedly until all specifications are adequately set forth for electronic receipt and processing by the supplier’s computer-based busi- ness information system. Note that the 841 can contain environmental quality

RICH^ FERGUSON

WHAT ARE THE ANSI X12 STANDARDS?

The ANSI X12 “standards”are essentially a uniform syntax and a set of code-table values and references. The syntax is simple and low-tech, applying a lightly structured set of labels and positional rules, and a hierarchical looping structure, on ordinary ASCJI characters. Indeed, one can almost read XI2 code printed outwithouttrans1ationonapieceofpaper.The key featureofanX12 standardmessageisthat it isindependent of the mechanical means of transmittal of information. The stand& are data interchange standards: information can be coded in ANSI X12 on one platform and application program and transmitteb-using floppy diskene, magnetic tape, or by any type of real-time or batch or packet telecommunication, or a combination of these methods-to any other platform and application program having an electronic X12 interpreter. The standards simply control the coding format used, rather than the transmission method.

ANSI X12 syntax rules and code values are organized at four levels of detail (listed here from the most detailed to the highest level of generality): (1) data element dictionary, (2) segment directory and positional rules, (3) transaction set standards, and (4) transmission control standards.

How THEY WORK Taking these from the most general to the most detailed, the X12 standards work as follows. The tlansmission (or interchange) control standards provide for the overall electronic envelope in which

one or more XI2 messages are carried from sender to receiveds). Each interchange consists of one or more ”transaction sets.”Each transaction set is roughly equivalent to a generic“type”ofbusiness paper document, such as an Invoice, a Purchase Order, or a ReponofTest Results. Each type of cramaction set, in turn, is made up of a series of “segments”-each roughly equivalent to a “line” or “block“ of related data on a paper form. Enally, at the most detailed level, the data element dictionary provides definitions for the “dau elements”- individual atoms of data which are assembled to compose each segment of information in the electronic transaction

The data element dictionary defines the data elements that can be transmitted and provides a standard identifying code for each element. Data elements are the X12 “atoms,” the basic building blocks of the record being transmined. In the environmental arena, these can include alphanumeric elements such as the name and address of a facility, its permit number or waste ID code, or numerical data such as flow rate, concentration, or statistical sampling paramete‘rs.

Additionally, the X12 dictionary contains tables of predefined code values for commonly encountered items of business data.

An example of data elements often found together is the telephone number of a point of contact; the X12 reference code is ‘“IT,” which when encountered tells the receiver that the following data item (say‘202-555- 1212’3 should be interpreted as a phone number rather than a FAX or TWX number.

The value ‘“TE” is an example of a standard, predefined X12 code value; the phone number itself is an example of a user-supplied value. The X12 standards provide a powerful combination of predictable positions-or data pigeonholes-in which to place or find both kinds of elements of data.

The segment directory gives the code names and positional rules forlogical and predefined combinations of related data elements. For example, the segment directory includes an entry called “DTM” specifying that “date-and-time”usudly has three relared data elements clustered together. The first might be a code number or character indicating the “kind” of date to follow, such as shipping date, invoice date, MSDS publication date, orotherprespecified date.Theseconde1ement wouldcontainthedateitself,usingsixdigits, and thethird element would be the time of day. Special characters separate data elements within a segment and mark the terminalion of each segment and the beginning of the next segment.

Another example of a segment is“PER,”thename and telephone numberofthe“person to contact,” which is coded in X12 as:

PER * 1C * C.D. Jones * TE * 2025557885 N/L

where “PER” is the identifier for the segment and “1 C’ and ‘TE” are the reference codes for person name 264 TIXU Q u m ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMMISPRING 1992

ANSI X12: DATA STANDARDS FOR TQEM

(C.D. Jones) and phone number (ZO25557885); “N/L” signifies end of segment. The transaction set standards define the contern of a single generic type of document, such as an invoice, purchase order, request for quotation, shipping manifest, or MSDS. The X12 committee uses a handy three-digit number for each type of electronic document. As an example, a Purchase Order has a standarddevelopment track number of 850, the Invoice is an 8 10, and a Request for Quotation is an 840.

The transmission control standards basically defrne the “envelope,” or the “letter of transmittal,” for the transmission of the electronic documents (that is, transaction sets). They define such items as: how transaction sets are identified and how beginnings and endings of thk documents aI1: defined, grouping of the sets, identification of sender and receiver, and procedures for transmitting and for acknowledging receipt. These standards also establish means by which documents of similar type are grouped for transmission and provide means by which more than one category of document can be forwarded in one transmission.

PRACTICAL APPUCATIONS In practice then, the originator of an electrunic message uses the XI2 standards to construct a message

which could be easily interpreted by a recipient familiar with X12 or, more importantly, the recipient’s d a u processing equipment. The originator looks in the data element dictionary to identify how each element in the message should be coded. Then the sendermust sequence each of those elements in the order established in the segment dictionary. Each of those segments is in turn placed in a segment sequence specified in the transaction set. The originator separates data elements within a segment with some predefined symbol, such as an asterisk, then separates segments with other symbols such as “NN/L.”The result js a computer message that corresponds to a single hard copy document-a tmnsaction set built from predefined segments made up of predefined data elements in a predefined order.

Several types of documents might be combined in a single transmission. For example, an originator might wish to transmit five invoices, fourteen purchase orders, and three requests for quotation in one session. The sender would simply group all similar documents together. At the start of the session, an interchange control header would be sent, followed by a functional group header indicating invoices are to be transmitted, then the five invoices, with transaction set headers and trailers separatingeach invoice, followed by a functional group trailer indicating end of transmission of invoices.

The process would be repeated forthe purchase orders (functional group header, invoices with headers and trailers, and functional group trailer), and then again for the three requests for quotation. Thus, each of the twenty-two individual documents could be viewed as the equivalent of acomplete paper document. In the paper world, the sender might decide to forward all twenty-two paper documents to the receiver through the mail in one large addressed envelope, similar to “bounding” the transmission with the interchange control header.

Since the invoices, purchase orders, and requests for quotation are muted to different offices upon receipt, the originator might elect to place the three groups of documents into three smaller envelopes addressed to the various offices, similar to “bounding” each category of transaction sets with functional group headers and trailers.

SUMAURY The ANSI XI2 standards very precisely define information to be transmitted in an electronic report by a

series of four interrelated standards. The basic document to be transmitted is called the transaction set, and the transaction set standards define these documents in terms of allowable sequences of data segments. Data segments are defined in the X12 segment directory, and are simply ordered sets of data elements along with leading and trailing identifiers and separation symbols.

The basic building blocks are the data elements, which maybe used in anumber of reports of various types. These data elements are defined in the XI2 data element dictionary, which includes an identifying code and specifications as to the type of data allowed in the field (for example, alpha, alphanumeric, numeric only). A total transmission session is conducted using a series of transactions defined in the transmission control standards, which define how the sender and receiver will be identified, how transaction sets will be divided, and how transmission will start and receipt will be acknowledged.

Tma Q u m ENVIRONME,+TAL MANAGEME~TISPRING 1992 265

RICHARD FERGUSON

d The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), Transaction Set 848, now provides a chemical supplier with a detailed electronic structure into which all of the OSHA and EPA and many state or local materials hazards and regulatory requirements can be encoded.

standards set by agencies or corporate headquarters just as easily as it can contain product quality standards. An environmental manager or regulator could encode an air permit, for example, within an 841 document. An importer could require certain TSCA compliance characteristics or information from a supplier in its 841 specification.

DISCOVERING MATERIAL HAZARDS EARLY I N THE DESIGN CYCLE The Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS), Transaction Set 848, now provides a

chemical supplier with a detailed electronic structure into which all ofthe OSHA and EPA and many state or local materials hazards and regulatory requirements can be encoded. The same transaction set affords a customer/user with a quick way to demand material hazard data quickly and electronically from the proposed supplier. Widespread use of the electronic X12 MSDS offers engineers the potential for rapid access to pollution-prevention and risk-reducing design data (without having to sort through a stack of out-of-date paper MSDSs). It also offers the cost-saving feature of having the MSDS supplier do much of the regulatory research-and pay for that legal research-just once, while hundreds or even thousands of customer/users get the electronic result for use instantly.

A TQEM application might call for competing chemical suppliers to submit electronic bids to furnish a given material or mixture, in which the competing suppliers would electronically report their competitively “low” levels of hazardous constituents in the form of electronic up-to-date MSDSs accompanying their electronic price quotations. The customer’s waste-reduction program might include this routine electronic environmental competition among suppliers.

ENVIRONMENTAL TEST RESULTS AND STATISTICS The X12 “Report of Test Results” (Transaction Set 863) was originally

designed for chemical product quality certification, including composition and purity specification. It lends itself as well as an electronic structure for carrying the data items necessary for measuring and reporting compliance with pollution- measurement rules. The 863 provides segment and data element spaces for virtually the same data items found in the 841 transaction. It differs somewhat in its looping hierarchy and provisions for statistical reports, but it is nonetheless a derivative of the 841 specification format. Virtually all environmental measurement and compli- ance reports can be implemented within the X12 Transaction Set 863, and one can expect this generic data structure to be employed by most government agencies choosing to accept electronic filing of pollution control data. To the extent that environmental quality can be specified in the 841, the 863 can be used as the routine electronic quality reporting vehicle.

NONCONFORMANCE In order to speed and integrate the design, manufacture, test, and delivery cycle

among electronic trading partners , the X12 Committee developed the“Nonconfor- mance Report” (842). Like the 863, this electronic document format is a derivative of the 841 Specification transaction set. It has additional segments (NCD and NCA) forthe receiver to send specific data describing the nonconformance with the original standards, and to command or report back the specific “nonconformance action” required to set things right. The nonconformance report contains data structures for reporting or requiring sampling statistics, as in the 841 and 863. (A separate “Warranty” transaction set is now being developed by the X12 Committee to link

266 TOTAL Q u w ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENTISPRING 1992

ANSI X 1 2 : DATA STANDARDS FOR TQEM

IKTERNATIONAL ED1 STA~DARDS: UN/EDIFACT

Like ANSI X12, UNEDIFACT is a system of standards that define rules for ED1 and syntax between correspondents. W/EDIFA(X is primarily used outside the United States and/or by international trading partners. The two standards are similar in basic function and intent, and provisions have been made to convert ANSI XI2 code to UNEDIFACI’ by use of a “recasting tool kit.” Most importantly here, there arc UN/ EDIFACfequivalents to the same ANSI XI2 transactions of interest to environmental and quality managers. Indeed the EDIFACT “Quality Message” and the X12 ”Report of Test Results” were developed closely in parallel by the same volunteers from a few international companies.

WEDIFACT’ uses the Same four groups of standards as ANSI X12: transaction set standards, a data element dictionary, segment directory, and transmission control standards. Similarities and differences between the two are:

Both use data elements as the basic building block, though UNEDIFACT‘uses a somewhat different method for presenting the data element. WEDIFACT uses a“composite data element” which only recently is being accommodated within X12. The composite data element consists of two or more simple data elements linked together. The composite shows functional relationships between the elements so that the same grouping is used

I consistently. Data segments in the two systems are broadly similar. WEDIFACT uses data elements in the construction of segments and some controls for repetitive counting, features not used in ANSI X12. TheUN/EDIFACTequivalentto theANSIX12“transactiondataset”isthe“message.”Both requirc theuser to follow astrucrured sequence tocreatethedocument, and the resulting overall design is very similar. Differences in allowed chakicter sets do not affect message design, but might be of conwm when the sender selects delimiter characters for segments and elements. Grouping of transaction sets (or messages in UN/EDIFACT) for transmission is broadly similar in the two systems, though UN/EDIFACTdoesnot require use of functional group headers and trailers.

suppliers and customers together even more closely and quickly for resolution of defects and rapid capture of data on the defects in the customer environment.)

SUMMING UP Electronic data interchange standards set by the ANSI X12 Committee now

allow new improvements for environmental managers and quality managers who use computer-based information systems. The X12 standards for electronically communicating product quality standards and test results can also be used to electronically format environmental quality standards and tests. Even better, the same X12 data formats are also used for routine materials design, purchase, inventory, shipping, and process control transactions on company computer sys- tems. The use of the X12 syntax for exchanging data on environmental, health and safety topics makes it easier for managers to share data and link the performance of environmental, materials, and quality management information systems.

TOTAL QiJAurr ENVIRONMENTAL h h V A G E M M / s P R i N G 1992 267