SEEBURGER: What is a VDA 4916 Message?

The VDA 4916 message provides Just-in-Sequence (JIS) information that is sent to suppliers by their customers using EDI. The VDA 4916 message is focusing on automotive manufacturers wanting to communicate demands to suppliers who deliver specific parts in a determined sequence directly to a production line. These JIS messages follow the VDA standards and are supplement documents for electronic purchasing processes based on delivery schedules commonly used in the automotive manufacturing.

VDA 4916 is a VDA (German Association of the Automotive Industry or in German Verband der Automobilindustrie e. V.) standard and is an essential document for the electronic delivery and purchasing processes in the automotive industries. The new VDA 4986 message replaces the legacy VDA 4916 message.

Building a car is a highly automated procedure. What makes it particularly sophisticated is the individual configuration of each car in terms of equipment, optional features, etc. Thus suppliers producing parts need to send them to an OEM’s assembly line always in the right sequence. Therefore the VDA 4916 message was used to communicate exactly this information.

As each individual item was communicated with a VDA 4916 message the calls were sent very frequently in most JIS scenarios which required a very stable and performant EDI.

JIS messages consisted of segments and elements specified by the VDA 4916 guideline. EDI solutions which are typically on premises solution for JIS processes in each plant – send, receive and process EDI messages like VDA 4916. In order to ensure a high quality of the process it was mandatory to follow the VDA 4916 standards which is vital for time critical processes like the Just-in-Sequence delivery. This requirement is still the same with the new VDA 4986 message.

The JIS processes usually starts with a VDA 4905 message defining a long term delivery planning, which is further specified with a VDA 4915 message giving more precise information of quantity for given dates. The VDA 4916 messages finally clarify the predicted time of use for the single item at the assembly line.

The VDA standard is very common in the EU region when exchanging EDI messages with automotive OEMs. The EDIFACT DELJIT message and the ANSI X12 866 are also used in particular for exchanging production sequence information.

The VDA 4916 message is the predecessor of the VDA 4986 message for exchanging JIS information.

The move from VDA 4905 to the VDA 4986 protects your supplier rating as JIS supplier because you fulfill the requirement of the automotive manufacturers/OEMs. With SEEBURGER, you can swiftly change to the new format and a stable operation:

The SEEBURGER BIS Platform can be used on-premises or in a public cloud environments or as an EDI Cloud Service in the SEEBURGER Cloud. For JIS scenarios on-premises solutions are most common because of the performance and timing requirements.
SEEBURGER can quickly convert the documents to the new data format with our canonical mapping approach just using a new partner mapping from our repository.