From SCDigest's On-Target E-Magazine
April 27 , 2011
Supply Chain News: Second Annual ASN Study by Auburn University Professors Finds Retail Practices and Results Vary Substantially
Actual ASN Accuracy Averages 93% in Survey Respondents; Retailers Expect 98-99% Accuracy
SCDigest Editorial Staff
For the second straight year, Dr. Brian Gibson and Dr. Brent Williams of Auburn University have released research on the practice and success of Advanced Ship Notices (ASNs) in the consumer goods to retail supply chain.
An Advanced Ship Notice is a form of electronic communication (EDI 856 transaction) sent from a supplier to a customer that details what goods are coming in what shipments before they arrive at a customer's distribution center or factory. While the specifics of an 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.
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Of the 22% of retailers that currently do not require ASNs, 90% say they plan to add that requirement in the near future.
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The benefits of quality ASN data are many , including increases of 20-40% in receiving productivity, support for flow-through DC processing, the ability to pre-allocate merchandise to stores, improved supply chain visibility, and other enhancements to supply chain performance.
The report data was based on two rounds of surveys, one on-line and one in-person at an industry conference, ultimately involving about 100 retail respondents cobined. That data was supplemented by analysis of detailed supply chain information from two retail customers of Compliance Networks, a supplier of compliance optimization technologies that in part provides a data repository of vendor performance against a retailer's vendor guide requirements, including ASN performance.
The full study by Gibson and Williams is available here: ASNs in Retail Benchmark Report 2011.
78% of retail respondents said they required ASNs at some level, with 22% not requiring ASNs. But only 30% of retailers require and receive ASNs from 100% of suppliers. 30% require ASNs from all suppliers but are unable to achieve 100% compliance, while another 18% do not require ASNs from all suppliers.
However, of the 22% of retailers that currently do not require ASNs, 90% say they plan to add that requirement in the near future.
Of course, simply receiving ASNs is only half the battle. The value of the ASN clearly drops dramatically as ASN accuracy declines.
(Supply Chain Trends Story Continued Below)
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