What happens in the Warehouse stays in the Warehouse
In-bound processes are can be simplistically classified into Pre-Receiving, Receiving and Putaway as we have discussed on earlier occasions as well. At a high level following processes form the inbound logistics of a warehouse:
- Appointment Scheduling
- Pre-Receiving
- Receiving
- Quality Assurance and Vendor Audits
- Putaway
Pre-Receiving, which begins with the ASN, typically accounts for about 10% of operating costs- thereby commanding the attention it deserves.
An Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) is a form of electronic communication (EDI 856 transaction) sent from a supplier to a warehouse that details what goods are coming in what shipments before they arrive at a distribution center or warehouse. ASNs will often include PO numbers, SKU numbers, lot numbers, quantity, pallet or container number, carton number. While the specifics of a ASNs' contents can vary by industry or even individual supplier-customer relationship, in the consumer goods to retail sector ASNs generally involve carton-level content detail tied to GS1-128 (formally UCC-128) serialized bar code labels on each carton.
The benefits of quality ASN data are numerous, including increases of 20-40% in receiving productivity (as confirmed in many a research), better labor planning and allocation, the ability to pre-allocate merchandise to stores, improved supply chain visibility, and other enhancements to supply chain performance. In a recent WMS implementation I was involved in, receiving operations observed a 33% increase in productivity after Mobile RF devises were introduced to collect the receiving information. Prior to the implementation, these processes were handled manually. Add to this, quality ASN information, and imagine the benefits that it could translate to.
In a traditional ERP implementation Expected Receipt Instructions can be sent to the WMS wherein ASN is one of the receipt types. Against this expected instruction warehouse needs to perform the receiving action and reciprocate with a Receipt Confirmation instruction. So systemically the Data Flow could be understood in terms in the involvement of the following:
- Supplier Sends the Shipment Information to ERP via TMS (Transportation Management System)
- ERP processes the information and generates an Excepted Receipt of Type ASN to the WMS
- WMS sends back the Receipt Confirmation to the ERP
In case an organization chooses to deploy Oracle EBS, Oracle WMS would be implemented including MSCA and Oracle Inventory. This would reduce the overhead of ER/RC interfaces, but still be able to process the ASN information from the supplier.
ASN accuracy has to be measured in terms of not just that what is on the ASN, but also that the EDI transmission meets the retailer's technical requirements and can be processed automatically. In order to derive the fruition of ASN processing Supplier Labeling Compliance is a pre-requisite. Once the compliance is established, it ensures a seamless information flow between the systems.
