Carling Technologies is a Connecticut-based manufacturer of products including circuit breakers, switches, and controls. They needed help processing their Advanced Ship Notices, or ASNs for short, due to industry changes to the format. Carling turned to Data Communication Solutions (DCS) to get the job done. DCS Consultant Dawn Stevens was in charge of the project.

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About the ASN

Companies use the Advance Ship Notice, or X12 856, to electronically communicate the load contents before the shipment arrives at the trading partner’s facility. It is used in most industries. The main details provided to the trading partner are as follows:

  • Shipment Level (HL-S): Consists of the tracking and carrier information, including the total cartons and weights.
  • Order Level (HL-O): Consists of purchase order numbers and other order level information.
  • Pack Level (HL-P): Consists of the barcodes from the cartons and any other pack information.
  • Item Level (HL-I): Consists of item information including UPC codes, item numbers and their quantities and pack counts.

This document can be very complex and varies between trading partners. Typically, the pack information is put in the MAN (Marks and Number) segment within the HL-P level and separated from the item information in the HL-I.  This means the item information for that pack will be a child of that pack.

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The Business Need

Certain industries are making additions to the format of their ASNs. These industries only use the Shipment and Item levels. Now, they are adding the Load Detail Loop (CLD) in the Item Level. This segment is required if serial numbers are sent. The segment consists of the pack count for the cartons of the items and the number of cartons per pack. In that loop, there will be the pallet number and the serial numbers. If there are partial packages, there must be another CLD loop under the one item (LIN).

In this instance, the pack/pallet number and serials of the packages are placed under the HL-I level in a reference segment along with the CLD loop. This can cause issues with the creation of these EDI files if the backend (ERP) system data doesn’t follow this structure. For Carling, JDE was one backend that needed additional programming to function correctly for EDI.

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The DCS Solution

Working closely with the JDE analysts, DCS was able to help provide the mapping layouts (looping structures) that were needed to translate this format of EDI correctly for Carling. These tables are utilized in both EDIFACT and X12 documents.  DCS was then able to map the ASN correctly and pass on this structure to other clients that were struggling with these processes.

Do you need help processing your Advance Ship Notices or other EDI transactions? If so, DCS is ready to help. Contact us today and learn how to find the best B2B integration solutions for your company!

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About the Associate

Dawn Stevens brings over 20 years of EDI experience working in customer support, mapping, data analysis, consulting, and implementation of software. Dawn is well versed in a variety of common operating systems, applications, and hardware with a proven ability to master new tools and technologies quickly. She is an analytical and solutions-oriented EDI Consultant providing client-focused technical support along with system implementation.