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Advance Shipping Notice (ASN)

What is an ASN?

An Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) is a document sent from a supplier to a customer that provides specific details about the delivery of items to that customer. It is primarily sent by the supplier to notify the customer that the items are ready for shipment. However it also provides further information about the contents of the delivery to help the customer optimise receipt and track the shipment. If the supplier and the customer have EDI, then the ASN can be sent seamlessly via EDI.

What information is in an ASN?

The types of information that can be found in a typical ASN include the following:

  • Order information (the purchase order number, etc)
  • Product information (product types, quantities, etc)
  • Sender’s address
  • Delivery address
  • Shipment date
  • Expected delivery date
  • Serial numbers (for tracking delivery)
  • Carrier information

EDI and ASN

An EDI system can easily send, receive and process EDI messages like the ASN. The EDI ASN is also known as EDI 856 or ANSI X12 EDI 856 message and the X12 reference is to the X12 Transaction Set for use within the context of an EDI environment. The EDI ASN is made up of different machine-readable elements that provide various details about the delivery.

Once the EDI ASN is received, all the delivery information is automatically uploaded into the customer’s ERP system giving the customer immediate notification of the delivery consignment. The ASN information can then be checked against the original order, to determine any problems in advance. Without EDI, the ASN is not as useful, as it may not get to the right people at the right time, and human error increases the possibility of incorrect data input.

ASN Benefits

The importance of EDI ASN’s in supply chain

Supplier Benefits

  • Fulfilling customer orders leads to enhanced customer confidence
  • Reduces time and saves costs – as manual data entry is significantly decreased

Customer Benefits

  • Transparency and Certainty – the ASN can be checked against the original order, highlighting any discrepencies in advance
  • Real-Time tracking –  the delivery progress can be tracked; which helps when it is time-critical.

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