EDIFACT DELFOR: Delivery Schedule Guide

DELFOR is the message that tells an automotive or industrial supplier what to build, and how much of that plan the customer will actually pay for if it changes. Every week, often every day, the customer's MRP run produces a new schedule per part. The supplier's job is to read each bucket correctly: ship the firm ones, plan around the forecast ones, and never build beyond what the customer has authorised.

This guide covers what DELFOR carries, the directories you will meet (D.96A and D.97A in older OEM guides, D.04A in the current Global DELFOR), how VDA 4905 and 4984 fit in, a full example, the segments you will map, and how DELFOR lines up with the EDI 830 planning schedule.

What Is an EDIFACT DELFOR?

DELFOR is the UN/EDIFACT Delivery schedule message: "a message from buyer to supplier giving product requirements regarding details for short term delivery instructions and/or medium to long term product/service forecast for planning purposes according to conditions set out in a contract or order." That is the definition in the UN/EDIFACT directory, which adds that the message "can be used to authorize the commitment of labour and materials resources." It is often called the delivery forecast, and the 830 and 862 guides on this site use that name too, but its official title is the delivery schedule message.

Authoritative references for DELFOR work:

• The UN/EDIFACT D.96A DELFOR message from UNECE gives the definition and segment table; the same message in D.04A on EDIFACTORY shows the layout the current automotive guidelines use
• The VDA list of EDI recommendations (August 2024) records which flat-file VDA formats VDA 4984 Global DELFOR replaces
• OEM profiles, such as Volvo Group's Global DELFOR D.04A guideline, show how one customer fills each segment, with full examples

Who sends it? The buyer: an OEM, a tier-one supplier ordering from its own suppliers, or any manufacturer running scheduling agreements. It is usually generated by the plant or the central planning system.

When is it sent? On a fixed cadence, most often weekly and sometimes daily, straight out of the buyer's MRP run. Each new DELFOR normally replaces the previous schedule for the same part, ship-to and delivery point.

Why does it matter? DELFOR drives your production planning and raw-material buying. Misreading a forecast bucket as firm leads to overproduction. Missing a firm bucket leads to premium freight or a line stoppage at the customer.

Directories: D.96A, D.97A and D.04A

DELFOR has changed shape between directories, and the directory in UNH tells you which layout you are reading.

Volvo Group's guide describes its current profile as "the Joint Automotive Industries (JAI) Global DELFOR. Based on EDIFACT Directory, D04A", and lists the differences from its older D.96A message. The VDA's own recommendation, VDA 4984, is also a Global DELFOR on D.04A. That is why the example in this guide uses D.04A rather than the D.96A used elsewhere on this site. If your customer still runs a D.96A or D.97A profile, the business content is the same; the grouping segments differ.

Odette, VDA and the Flat Files DELFOR Replaced

European automotive EDI grew up on two families of guidelines: Odette, the pan-European automotive organisation, and the VDA, the German automotive association. The VDA list of recommendations records how the old VDA flat files map to the EDIFACT messages that replace them:

So a German OEM moving off VDA 4905 will send you DELFOR, and one moving off VDA 4915 will send DELFOR for the plan and DELJIT for the near-term calls. Many suppliers receive both the old flat file and the new message during a migration, so confirm with the customer which one is authoritative.

Firm, Commitment and Forecast: the SCC Codes

Every quantity bucket in DELFOR sits under an SCC (scheduling conditions) segment whose first element says what kind of demand it is. The UN/EDIFACT code list for that element (delivery plan status indicator, 4017) defines:

Codes 2 and 3 are the EDIFACT version of the X12 830's ATH segment: they set the fabrication and raw-material authorisation the customer is liable for. Our article on cumulative quantity (CUM) accounting covers how these zones work against the cumulative totals.

Example: Weekly Global DELFOR for One Part

The fictional axle plant Northbrook Axle (buyer code 0410) sends its weekly schedule to the fictional foundry Kestrel Castings (supplier code 4471) for one cast brake carrier. Two weeks are firm, three are forecast, and the message authorises fabrication to 29 November and material to 13 December.

Reading it as the supplier's planner would:

The fabrication commitment covers the two firm weeks plus the first forecast week (1,200 + 1,200 + 1,400 = 3,800). The material commitment covers all five weeks (3,800 + 1,400 + 1,000 = 6,200). Check that arithmetic on your partner's real schedules: when an authorisation is lower than the firm buckets it covers, that is a question for the scheduler, not something to resolve in your ERP.

Note there is no UNS and no CNT in a D.04A DELFOR: the last bucket is followed directly by UNT. The free EDIFACT inspector checks the UNT and UNZ counts for you.

DELFOR Structure at a Glance (D.04A)

Statuses are from the UN/EDIFACT D.04A message. Automotive guidelines make many of the conditional groups required.

Key Segments Explained

BGM: Beginning of Message

BGM+241+NB-DF-261106-01+9'

DTM: Dates

DTM+137:20261106:102'

Format 102 is CCYYMMDD and 203 is CCYYMMDDHHMM. Whether buckets carry a ship date (10) or a delivery date (2) is set by the partner, and confusing the two moves every shipment by the transit time.

LIN, PIA and LOC: The Part and Where It Goes

LIN+++7731-220-04:IN'
PIA+1+KC-88120:SA'
LOC+11+D07::92'

The third element of LIN carries the buyer's part number with type IN. PIA with function 1 adds other numbers, here your own part number (SA); some OEMs also send a drawing or engineering change level here. LOC+11 is the place of discharge, usually the dock or unloading point, and some guides add LOC+159 for a further internal destination. In Volvo's guide, the combination of part, order number, unloading point and parties is what identifies a schedule, so a change to any of them starts a new schedule rather than updating the old one.

QTY: Cumulative and Receipt Quantities

QTY+70:18400'
DTM+51:20260105:102'
DTM+52:20261106:102'

Compare the buyer's QTY+70 with your own shipped cumulative every time. If they differ, the difference is usually a shipment in transit or a receipt the buyer has not booked, and the QTY+48 lines tell you which despatch advices the buyer has counted.

SCC: Scheduling Conditions

SCC+1'
QTY+113:1200'
DTM+10:20261111:102'

Each SCC opens a group, and every QTY and DTM pair under it inherits its status. A message can repeat SCC+1 once per firm bucket, as in the example, or carry several QTY/DTM pairs under one SCC; both shapes are valid, so your mapping should handle both. Some profiles add a later element to flag the delivery process: Volvo uses SCC+4++J' to mark a forecast for a part delivered through a JIT or JIS flow.

DELFOR vs the X12 830

The two do the same job, but the mapping is not one-to-one, so treat a DELFOR-to-830 conversion as a remap built from the partner's guide. The 830 guide covers the X12 side, and EDI 830 vs 862 explains how planning and shipping schedules divide the work.

Where DELFOR Sits in the Flow

The scheduling agreement sets prices and terms once; DELFOR then drives quantities. Our article on scheduling agreements vs blanket orders explains that structure, and many automotive buyers pay by self-billing from your DESADV instead of waiting for an invoice.

Common DELFOR Errors and How to Prevent Them

DELFOR Implementation Checklist

1. Get the partner's profile. Directory (D.96A, D.97A or D.04A), Odette or VDA basis, and any OEM-specific codes.
2. Agree identifiers. Your supplier code in NAD+SE, the plant and dock codes in NAD+ST and LOC, and both part numbers.
3. Confirm the replacement key. Which combination of part, order, unloading point and parties identifies one schedule.
4. Map every SCC code the partner uses, including any JIT or JIS flags in later elements.
5. Decide ship-date or delivery-date planning from the DTM qualifiers.
6. Load cumulative quantities and set an alert when the buyer's QTY+70 differs from yours.
7. Load commitments as fabrication and material limits in planning.
8. Test with real schedules, including a zero schedule, a part change and a cumulative reset at year end.

Reading DELFOR With OrderSync

DELFOR is a planning message, and most suppliers receive it alongside orders that arrive in other ways: EDI 850s from some customers, PDFs and emails from others, and spreadsheets from the rest. OrderSync reads those inbound orders in any format, matches customers, items and units to your catalog, and outputs clean ERP data or valid X12, and it generates the outbound 856 ship notice and 810 invoice your US customers expect.

Paste any DELFOR into the free EDIFACT inspector to see it parsed segment by segment, use the free EDI inspector for the X12 830s and 862s from your US customers, or book a 15-minute walkthrough to see your own orders processed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related guides

• EDIFACT DELJIT: the just-in-time call-off that follows DELFOR
• EDI 830 planning schedule: the X12 counterpart
• EDI 862 shipping schedule and EDI 866 production sequence: the X12 near-term schedules
• EDIFACT DESADV: the despatch advice you send against each call-off
• EDIFACT explained and EDIFACT message types: syntax, envelopes and the full catalogue

Sources

• UN/EDIFACT D.96A DELFOR message, UNECE: definition and D.96A structure
• DELFOR in directory D.04A, EDIFACTORY: D.04A segment groups
• Liste der Empfehlungen: EDI und warenbegleitende Papiere, VDA, August 2024: status of VDA 4905, 4915, 4916, 4984, 4985 and 4986
• Volvo Group Global DELFOR D.04A guidelines and examples, Volvo Group: JAI Global DELFOR basis, segment usage and examples
• VDA 4984 planning schedule, SEEBURGER: VDA 4984 as the successor of VDA 4905, based on DELFOR D.04
• Ordering message guidelines, Odette

Check any DELFOR or DELJIT in the free EDIFACT inspector.