841Specifications/Technical Information
This standard provides the format and establishes the data contents of the Specifications/Technical Information transaction set. This transaction set can be used to transmit specifications or technical information between trading partners. It can be used to allow EDI trading partners the ability to exchangee a complete or partial technical description of a product, process, service, etc. over the same path as any other EDI transaction. The detail area can include graphic, text, parametric, tabular, image, spectral, or audio data. A transmission includes identification information to assist the receiver in interpreting and utilizing the information included in the transaction.
Further action as a consequence of the receipt and initial processing of the specification or other technical data may or may not require human intervention. The transmission and receipt of the data may require private agreement between the trading partners to automate the receipt of the data.
The total transaction must be in the general form of all ASC X12 transactions so that an EDI computer system will be able to automatically recognize it as a Specification/Technical Information Transaction Set and pass it on for processing of the data itself. The transaction set is not media dependent.
The detail area of the Specification/Technical Information Transaction Set provides a structure which allows for the exchange of a variety of specification information. For example, if the transaction contains information describing a complete assembly, it would be necessary to include the assembly model, the models for each of the individual parts, and the associated specifications. In the case of a process it may be necessary to transmit the specification of the product along with the specifications of the process and raw materials. This transaction set can also be linked to other transaction sets.
This transaction set in not limited to a specific transmission protocol and uses other standards as applicable where they do not conflict with these requirements for specification transaction.