The Evolution Of Edi For Competitive Advantage: The Fedex Case

"The ideal company makes no product it has not already sold, and buys nothing it does not need right away. Its suppliers behave the same way. The total supply chain - customer, manufacturer, supplier - performs as an integrated unit, operating with the barest of inventory, incurring the least possible cost, communicating seamlessly in real time and, of course, making flawless products."(1) While not quite reality, the arrival of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) made this goal more achievable. This is especially true for FedEx.