VDA — German automotive EDI
Before EDIFACT took over, the German automotive industry had built its own exchange formats. The VDA recommendations — fixed-length messages for delivery call-offs, despatch advice and invoicing — remain pervasive among German OEMs and their suppliers.
What is VDA?
For decades the VDA has published numbered recommendations (Empfehlungen) standardising data exchange across the German automotive supply chain. Each four-digit recommendation describes one message: 4905 is the delivery call-off, 4906 the invoice, and so on.
The big difference from EDIFACT: classic VDA messages are not made of delimiter-separated segments but of fixed-length records. Each line is exactly 128 characters and starts with its Satzart (record type, three digits) that tells you how to read the following positions. It is a positional, offset-readable format designed for 1970s constraints.
The VDA messages
| Recommendation | Name (DE) | Role | EDIFACT equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| VDA 4905 | Lieferabruf | Delivery schedule / forecast call-off | DELFOR |
| VDA 4915 | Feinabruf | Fine / just-in-time call-off (short horizon) | DELJIT |
| VDA 4916 | Produktionssynchroner Abruf | Production-synchronous (sequenced) call-off | DELJIT (sequence) |
| VDA 4913 | Lieferschein / Transportdaten | Despatch advice + transport data | DESADV |
| VDA 4906 | Rechnung | Invoice | INVOIC |
| VDA 4908 | Sammelrechnung / Gutschrift | Grouped invoice / credit (self-billing) | INVOIC |
| VDA 4902 | Warenanhänger | Standardised parcel label | (label, not an EDI message) |
Anatomy of a fixed-length message
A VDA 4905 delivery call-off is organised into successive typed records:
511 Header (Vorsatz) — sender, receiver, date, schedule number
512 Lieferabruf — item reference, ship-to point, order number
513 Cumulative quantities (Fortschrittszahl) and last receipts
514 Due dates: 240 by 2026-07-01, 360 by 2026-07-15…
518 Trailer (Endsatz) — record counter
(Each line = a fixed-length 128-character record, prefixed by its
"Satzart" — the record type.)The call-off logic rests on the Fortschrittszahl (cumulative progress number): rather than sending "ship 240", the OEM sends the cumulative quantity expected by a date, and the supplier derives the remainder to ship by subtracting what it has already despatched. It is an automotive-specific mechanism that carries over into EDIFACT DELFOR/DELJIT.
The just-in-time flow
The VDA sequence reflects the just-in-time control of the automotive chain:
- 4905 Lieferabruf — the OEM sends a forecast schedule (weeks/months).
- 4915 Feinabruf — it refines it short-term (days/hours).
- 4916 synchronous call-off — for sequence-mounted parts, the exact line-feeding order.
- 4913 Lieferschein — the supplier ships and announces the contents (with the 4902 label).
- 4906 / 4908 Rechnung — the invoice (or OEM self-billing, common in automotive).
Migration to EDIFACT
VDA, Odette and AIAG
Three bodies structure automotive EDI by geography:
- VDA — Germany.
- Odette — Europe (with GALIA in France, SMMT in the UK…), the origin of the OFTP/OFTP2 transport.
- AIAG — North America, on the X12 side.
The three converge gradually through common EDIFACT recommendations (and "Global" initiatives such as the Global Transport Label).
Further reading
- VDA — Verband der Automobilindustrie (recommendations and publications).
- Associated transport: OFTP2 (RFC 5024).
- European counterpart: Odette.