Many companies use 3PL or logistics providers to warehouse seasonal goods or to serve a remote location. Data exchange with the 3PL must be as reliable, secure, and economical as with key customers for the best results. The documents exchanged also must not be in the 3PL’s proprietary format or your company becomes captive. Three classes of documents are exchanged with 3PLs: Shipping Orders, Replenishment Orders, and Inventory Reports.
Shipping Order
The Shipping Order provides detail for the movement of goods from the 3PL to the customer. For example, the toy that arrived from China in May is shipped to the merchant in late-September. To do so, the 3PL needs to know the store location, shipment date, trucker, quantity of each item, etc.
The most daunting challenge is to provide accurate packing information, such as style/color/size, in an inner-pack, case, and pallet. Second the contents of each pallet must be listed separately (not packed across several pallets). This level of detail is needed so that the 3PL packing and Shipment Notices ensure you will not be hit with a chargeback.
EDI documents exchanged are:
- Warehouse Shipping Order (940) – outbound to the warehouse
- Warehouse Shipping Advice (945) – confirmation the order was completed – inbound from the warehouse
OR - Shipment Notice (ASN, 856) – If the merchant requires an ASN, the 3PL must provide it. The ASN can replace the 945 as the contents are identical. (This means creating an inbound ASN data integration.)
DCS knows your ERP system/business application so integration will be done correctly, promptly, and economically. DCS’ NEXT LEVEL™ Conversion Service offers the experience you need to integrate EDI with your new ERP system based on our years of experience.
What have been your experiences exchanging documents with 3PLs?
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