Material Receiving automation.How it saves time and money.

1. Automated Material Receiving - Saving
Time and Money at Receiving Docks –
Presented By
Srini Raja
Director – TPSynergy.com
512-827-7407.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. Automated Material
Receiving - Saving Time
and Money at Receiving
Docks
Presented By
Srini Raja
Director - TPSynergy.com
512-827-7407
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