RVCF Error Prevention, Notification and Root Cause Analysis for Shipping and Receiving
RVCF business guidelines focus on a specific business process and the use of digital communications including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), portals, and emailed reports, photographs and videos.
Digital Communication Components
In general, there are at least three software applications used in digital communications:
- The software used to translate data into and out of a standardized file format (EDI, XML, etc.) according to the syntax rules for that digital communication type;
- One or more applications that transmit transactions to and from trading partners;
- A business system, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) used for normal business processes including ordering, inventory, financials, and so on.
Components in Automated Shipping and Receiving
The EDI 856 Ship Notice / Manifest (ASN) is the EDI transaction used by a supplier to convey the ship-to address, PO information, packaging and carrier information and the contents of a shipment.
The transaction is also known as an Advance Ship Notice (ASN) because the electronic transaction must arrive before the shipment if it is to be used for automated receiving. The shipment is automatically received when the individual carton Serial Shipping Container Code on the shipping label is scanned and matched with the information in the ASN.
ASN best business practices include sending the ASN after the shipment is complete and sealed, within two hours after it leaves the facility. Other best business practices include sending one ASN per shipment, and using the GS1 Bill of Lading form and numbering format (described in Terms and Concepts). However, it is important to understand the processes required by individual retailers. For instance, some retailers will allow multiple ASN’s per shipment (and tie them together when the Bill of Lading Number is the same in each ASN) and some will only accept the first ASN they receive, rejecting subsequent ASNs with the same BoL number, as duplicates.
The Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) is a unique eighteen-digit number put on each logistics unit (carton, pallet load, tote, etc.). It uses the supplier’s GS1 Company Prefix to insure uniqueness, similar to the way in which Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) are created. The SSCC appears in a barcode on the GS1 Logistics Label. When scanned and matched to the EDI Ship Notice, the logistics unit is linked to data about the PO and carton contents for automatic receiving.
The GS1 Logistics Label contains the SSCC in a barcode on a standard shipping label. The label has various zones or building blocks which can be mandatory or optional. Blocks of information commonly requested by US retailers include “From”, “To”, “Carrier”, “Store”, “Contents”, and the mandatory SSCC in both a barcode and human readable at the bottom of the label. Retailers in the US have settled on a fairly common format. However, it is unlikely that one label format will work for all retailers and all channels. Good label printing software provides for retailer-specific templates and the ability to create, modify and save formats.
Errors occurring in the automated receiving process include an ASN which is not properly formatted, incomplete or incorrect data, the barcode is unreadable, the ASN doesn’t match the actual shipment, or the ASN arrives after the shipment.
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