Advance Shipping Notice (ASN)

The Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) is a document used in supply chain management to provide detailed information about a pending shipment of goods.

It is typically generated by the supplier or manufacturer and sent to the customer or retailer before the actual delivery of the goods. The ASN provides important details about the shipment, such as the items included in the shipment, the quantity of each item, the unit of measure and weight of the shipment and the expected delivery date.

This information allows the customer to prepare for the delivery of the goods, such as arranging for the necessary receiving staff, ensuring that there is sufficient space to receive the goods. It is especially useful when receiving Logistic Units. The ASN allows the exchange of data linked with the logistic units’ SSCC code and the logistic units’ contents in advance. This way the receiving company can create the logistic units definitions before the shipment arrival, which will allow receiving the unit with a single scan of its SSCC code (for more info, see GS1 – SSCC barcode parser).

By providing accurate and timely information about pending shipments and its content, ASN can help to reduce the amount of time and effort required to process and manage the receiving process.