This the page aiming to introduce eBIZ, the European initiative for eBusiness harmonisation in the textile, clothing and footwear sectors to the industry and it providers.
Which is the main idea in eBIZ?
eBIZ proposes a language and organisational procedures to integrate firms of this sectors, from raw material to the shelf of a point of sale.
..and when these happens at European scale benefits for all the actors are evident.
In practice eBIZ proposes a Reference Architecture: thus it is not a software application,
but a public document followed by software resources, that supplies a reference framework and technical specifications
(online and continuously updated) that firms and their IT services suppliers can easily implement.
Does eBIZ affect you?
Surely, if you are active in textile, clothing or footwear sectors and in your work encounter issues like
Poor integration with suppliers and subcontractors
Lack of necessary information for production and activity planning
Need for speed-up and optimisation of logistic
Full exploitation of the potential benefits of RFID technology when it involves more than one organisation
Poor awareness of data regarding sell-out or inventory or ready to delivery goods at your partners locations
Management of information about technical features of the product.
Furthermore, surely, if you need to set-up new and more advanced collaborative applications between your organisation and your partners.
Do more with less: eBIZ offers the opportunity to change the way companies manage the processes and collaborate with their customers and suppliers.
A way to really seize the benefits of the digital era.
Why eBIZ
Generally speaking, only supply chains where all the actors are integrated can express their best potential.
On the other hand the specific fragmentation of the textile, clothing and footwear industry (TCF) often make such integration an hard objective.
Updating information systems and make them more efficient and flexible to support changes:
this is the key to invest in a framework of continuous change.
eBIZ was born exactly on the purpose to facilitate the development of interoperable software solutions.
This is the reason why the European Commission,
Euratex (European association of textile and apparel industry) and ENEA (Italian National Agency for New technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development),
in collaboration with CEC (European association of footwear industry), decided to create and promote eBIZ,
with the further involvement of CEN (European Standardisation Committee).
eBIZ is, thus, a public, free, European resources, continuously updated under the coordination of EURATEX,
available for the industry and their service and solution suppliers.
If interested, what can you do??
You can deepen
your knowledge by the official web site (www.ebiz-tcf.eu), in particular by examining its main result:
the Reference Architecture:
The Reference Architecture is composed by
a REPORT, main document (download) with chapters on Business models, Business processes, Communication, and other aspects like RFID, eInvoices, etc
an Appendix with more implementative details (same document
download)
a set of online resources (Guides, XML Schemas, samples, etc.), (click here)
Since July 2013 the Reference Architecture is a CEN document: CWA 16667
Further information also in www.moda-ml.org (English and Italian).
You can discuss about specifications, ask clarifications or suggestions about its usage;
You can send proposals for modification or extension: version 2.0 was released on June 2013
but a permanent group is committed to update eBIZ and collects new proposals and requirements for next versions.
Presently the project eBIZ 4.0 is running, it is a concrete opportunity to collect and implement further suggestions on eBIZ and th textile clothing supply chain.
You can participate public meetings or ask for help in evaluating if and how you
could use it;
click here for more details.
eBIZ organized seven events in Milan, London, Treviso, Paris, Prato, Frankfurt and Bruxelles whose documentation is online
(click here for details).
To ask support to the ENEA CROSS-TEC laboratory you can write to piero.desabbata@enea.it.
The community
An eBIZ group is active on
LINKEDIN and offers the possibility to participate actively as a part of the
community of eBIZ adopters and experts.
ENEA CROSS-TEC laboratory (www.cross-tec.enea.it or http://www.xml-lab.it)
aims to support firms adopting new technologies.
The laboratory can help you in identifying benefits eBIZ can give to your business.
For more information and written documentation contact the laboratory responsible:
Ing. Piero De Sabbata
Tel. +39 051 6098 322
piero.desabbata@enea.it www.cross-tec.enea.it
A presentation of eBIZ benefits for the fashion supply chains explained by entrepreneurs and technician of the firms already adopting it:
IN.CO, Cariaggi, Piacenza, Loro Piana, Albini and others.
eBusiness is based on digital data and documents exchanged between IT systems of firms.
Adoption of a standard language and of shared procedures offers to firms immediate advantages,
like costs and errors reduction as well as time and labour savings.
In respect of proprietary formats, a standard language facilitates the creation of new eBusiness relationships and cuts maintenance costs, in parallel it assures
good scalability for future uses.
The current eBIZ Reference Architecture has a chapter dedicated to RFID technology adoption.
Who uses RFID technology for logistic optimisation gets great advantages by connecting RFID and eBIZ technology.
RFID enables logistics optimization (picking, goods delivery, ecc.), the parallel adoption of eBIZ
allows to share advantages with the commercial partners, from inventory reporting to despacth advice anticipating the physical flow o freights.
Sinergy between flows of digital information supported by eBIZ and traceability actions for anti-counterfeiting initiatives and for contrasting parallel sales channels are highly interesting.
'If I have sell-out data…'
'If I have a faithful inventory report, I could activate a never-out-of-stock service …'
'If the warehouse systems had the list of freights going to be delivered …'
'Se non dovessi continuamente richiamare al telefono per avere le date delle consegne …'
'Suppliers fill data on IT systems when they have the time, often in a uncomplete way …'
'Each order is uploaded manually and sometimes we get an error…'
'The solution could be nice but our supplier does not want to invest so much for me only …'
'each customer ask for the same information but with a different format and different procedures …'
In order to setup eBIZ you should, firstly, identify the collaboration processes that have to be implemented prioritarily.
Later, through the Reference Architecture of eBIZ, the job of the IT manager to adapt the company information system to eBIZ is facilitated.
ENEA CROSS-TEC laboratory aims to support firms in new technologies adoption.
In the framework of its institutional activities, the laboratory can help you and your IT providers to understand opportunities and advantages of adopting eBIZ in your business.
For more information or to receive further material you can contact the laboratory responsible: piero.desabbata@enea.it
Launched by European Commission, eBIZ-TCF project (2008-2010) was co-ordinated by EURATEX (European Confederation of textile and apparel
industry) with the support of CEC (European Confederation of footwear industry) and ENEA, and developed a
Reference Architecture for data exchanges that is publicly available and based on the harmonisation of experiences and results from Moda-ML,
Shoenet and GS1.
Launched at CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) in 2012, CEN Workshop eBIZ is an European standardisation
initiative, promoted by EURATEX with the support of ENEA, with the aim of improve eBIZ results and
foster a more extended adoption in the fashion industry. The Workshop lasted for 18 months and was the opportunity for stakeholder to work jointly and propose new developments
(for example to better support RFID usage).
eBIZ 4.0 is an European COSME project, launched on December 2016 and addressing the joint adoption of eBIZ and RFID in the European supply chains. The project is based on three industrial pilots in Spain, Italy and France.
Since June 2013 the Reference Architecture, version 2.0, is available as CEN WS Agreement (CEN CWA 16667), up-to-date and supporting new market requirements, as identified
by an international experts group working in the framework of CEN. Among the other novelties, beyond RFID, there contributions from GS1 about business
collaboration models between producers and retail organisations.
Compared with previous 2010 version (click here ),
the new eBIZ Reference Architecture 2.0 for eBusiness harmonisation in Textile/Clothing and Footwear sectors"
has new contents related to:
A method to represent and classify Business Models,
Production Scenarios for customised footwear products for fashion and for health,
Cross-organisation RFID adoption support,
Electronic eInvoice,
Test and compliance checking,
Yarn techical properties modelling and management in supply relationships,