Automated Material Receiving - Saving Time and Money at Receiving Docks – Presented By

Srini Raja

Director – TPSynergy.com

512-827-7407.

Material Receipts - Last Mile Stone

• Material receipts are part of the last milestones in the Supply Chain Journey.

•  The material has traveled a long way from say China and it has reached your docks.

• The truck is waiting outside the gates and the material has to reach the assembly line or

shipping line to be consumed at the earliest.

• How fast and accurate material is received makes difference in the supply chain efficiency.

•  We have seen cases where the material was air lifted from China to reach US shores in one

day and then it reaches the docks the same day. 

Material Receipts - Last Mile Stone

• But for the material to reach the assembly line, it takes another 72 hours due to the process constraints like

counting, Inspection etc. 

• This is not efficient use of the resources.

•  Every Supply chain manager should consider how the time can be reduced in the receiving process. 

Post Processing Lead Time

• Time taken for the material to be available to the final consumption point from the time it

reaches the receiving docks is known as Post processing lead time.

• I have seen planners including 20 days of post processing lead time anticipating the lengthy

and time consuming material receiving process.

• Automating this material receiving process improves the supply chain efficiency greatly.

Advance Shipment Notification (ASN)

• Advance Shipment Notification is the electronic notification sent by Suppliers to Customers

informing them what is on their way.

• ASN typically will have

• Customer Purchase Order Reference Number

• Items Shipped in that shipment

• Quantities

• Carrier tracking number

• Expected Delivery Date

Advance Shipment Notification (ASN)

• These above mentioned information are vital for automating the receiving process.

• With ASN, receiving organization is able to know well in advance even before the truck arrives at

their facility.

• If they notice any discrepancies, they can alert the supplier and ask for corrective action

immediately.

•  For example if they are expecting a shipment of 100 numbers of an item and the ASN has only 50

in it, it draws a red flag and corrective actions are to be triggered immediately.

ASN Data and ERP 

• Most of the popular ERP Systems like SAP and Oracle are designed to manage ASN data.

• The ASN data is marked as pre-receipt data so that when the actual material arrives, it can be

reconciled and received with few clicks and keystrokes instead of entering each and every line

quantities.

• ASN data from suppliers can automatically be imported into the ERP system so that it will be

ready for the actual receipt. 

•  Each ASN from the supplier will have a shipment reference number also known as ASN number.

• If the data is already electronically loaded into the ERP system, it can be matched by entering

the ASN number. 

ASN Data and ERP 

• So the receiving dock need to just enter the Shipment number found in the shipping document

and it will pull the complete data of what is contained in the shipment.

• So the receiver need to just click yes if the quantities matches.

• This will reduce the time taken to receive the full container load of items in few minutes.

RFID and Automated Receiving

• RFID technology is the latest trend in Supply chain management. 

• RFID saves considerable time in handling , tracking and receiving material. 

• RFID label printers like Zebra RFID can print unique tags in a special label paper that contains

RFID tags embedded. 

•  Suppliers are asked to use the RFID labels in all the packages. 

• So all the packages both inner and outer will have the RFID tags included

• RFID tags can be placed on metal components also. 

RFID and Automated Receiving

• The advantage of RFID is that RFID data for all the tags can be collected without even scanning

the items. 

•  So assuming a truckload of delivery contains 500 boxes each containing about 500 individual

items. Physically counting them will take hours and days to complete. 

• With RFID scanners and RFID tags, the entire truck load data can be collected within few seconds.

• So the full truck load of items can be counted and received within few minutes.

• This will be a huge savings in the time taken for material receipts.

Conclusions

• Receiving material is the last milestone in supply chain process and this can be a major time

consuming event in the entire supply chain process. 

•  Automating this process reduces the overall cycle time and improves efficiency. The reduction in

receiving time will start from the suppliers.

•  Suppliers are expected to provide advance shipment notification electronically in advance before

the shipment arrives at the docks.

• Using RFID technology reduces the receiving time drastically.

• Using a automated Receiving portal tool like TPSynergy  improves the overall receiving process.

Automated Material Receiving - Saving Time and Money at Receiving Docks

Presented By

Srini Raja

Director - TPSynergy.com

512-827-7407

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