EDI 846 Inventory Advice

3PL EDI 846 Inventory Advice in SAP

When a 3rd party logistics provider, or 3PL is added to your supply chain, EDI is usually the method of choice for communication.

Most companies jump right into the big 4 transactions; warehouse order (940), shipping confirmation (945), warehouse advice (943) and warehouse receipt (944). These transactions are all necessary to set up a 3PL via EDI.

But – what happens when you ask your 3PL to ship inventory that they don't have? Mistakes get made, stock gets lost, moved or run over. If you are not on the same page with your 3PL with respect to inventory levels then your team will waste hours chasing down missing product, or trying to pinpoint the day or order that caused the issue.

CONTAX has worked on hundreds of 3PL set-up's. Often, the inventory advice (846) was not something our customers or their 3PL's had thought about. However, once we bring this transaction to their attention – they quickly see the value in implementing it, along with the follow up reporting that CONTAX has created. It's quick and easy to get up and running in your system.

This transaction would be sent from your 3PL to you daily (usually in the middle of the night when processing is at it's slowest). It would report on inventory levels at each plant, and in different statuses (damaged, good, quality inspection, etc.). It can go right down to the storage location if needed. CONTAX has set up a process, whereby after this is translated in your EDI subsystem, it is brought into SAP and compared against your inventory position at the time. Any discrepancies are reported on, giving you opportunity to correct any errors when they happen and also put measures in place to proactively prevent these in the future. If there are no discrepancies, you don't get bothered.

By adding this transaction to your 3PL implementation, you get more visibility into operations with your logistics partner, and a quicker resolution to any inconsistencies that may arise.

Demo Video

Demo video on how to use the EDI 846 inventory advice to synch your data between SAP and a 3PL.

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Solutions to seamlessly integrate your SAP system with third-party logistics providers. Fully automated EDI integration with 3PL's.

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