How to Prepare for Shipping Product as we Return to Manufacturing - AIM Computer Solutions

How to Prepare for Shipping Product as we Return to Manufacturing

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We continue to see reports that OEMs are planning for returning to the workplace in many North American manufacturing facilities in the coming weeks. Just yesterday the Detroit Free Press reported on General Motors plans for a limited, cadenced, and site-specific approach that they have targeted for Monday, May 18, 2020. We join you in awaiting more details from other OEMs and look forward to the day when all plants are back in full production.

This week our blog will focus on preparing you for shipping products to your customers as many automotive suppliers also prepare for this return to manufacturing. While many suppliers had some indication that the shutdowns were about to happen, it is still possible that state mandated requirements may have caused some loose ends with your data management. We will discuss:

  • Kanban Data Management
  • Open Shipper Management
  • Prepping for upcoming Shipments

How to Manage Kanban Data?

Special care should be given to those Trading Partners that send special reference data (or Kanban data) on their EDI Shipping Schedules. If you had any shippers prepped where Kanban data (records) are already attached but the shipment never went out, you will want to delete these shippers and release the attached Kanbans so they can be selected for your new shipper. Toyota, an OEM who electronically sends Kanban data, recently transmitted new requirement dates for existing Kanban records. Releasing the Kanban from the shipper allows the system to update that Kanban with any new information sent by the trading partner, but only if the Kanban is not already on a shipper.

A best practice would also be to print and review the AIM Vision Kanban Detail Report by specific customer code type (trading partner) for the date range from your shutdown through current date. This report helps you quickly identify if Kanban sequence data has been assigned to a Shipper, and can be used as a guide to determining which shippers may need to be deleted so the Kanban records can be released.

You may also find that some trading partners will opt to cancel and replace Kanban sequence number with new Kanban sequence numbers. If this is the case, and the trading partner does not send a 0 order quantity, you will want delete the Kanban through the AIM Vision Barcode Kanban Maintenance option so they do not accidentally get selected and assigned to any new shippers.

How to Manage Existing Open Shippers?

Another factor to consider as you are preparing to ship is the review of open shippers in your system that you may have been prepping, but never shipped. These could be for trading partners who require Kanban data or for those who do not require Kanban data. In either case, you will need to determine if you are going to delete or reuse the shipper number.

A message will display if serial labels are associated with the shipper you need to delete. Your will be prompted to answer the question: Would you like them deleted? If you select the No button, the serial labels will be released from the shipper, but not deleted, and can be reassigned to a new shipper based on current ship dates. If you select the Yes button, then the serial labels will be purged from the system and new serial labels would need to be created and assigned to the new shipper.

If you are opting to reuse existing shippers, be sure that the Ship Date and ASN Date fields are accurate before printing shipping forms and transmitting ASNs.

What else should I do to Prep for Upcoming Shipments?

For the last several weeks we have been covering topics related to inventory quantities and your automotive supply chain. As the OEMs and other Tiered suppliers continue ramping up production be sure to keep a pulse on your shipping requirements by utilizing one of the many variations of the AIM Vision Shipping Line Up Report. These reports can be printed to apply standard pack rounding, ship code logic and transit day logic. They also allow you to see any Past Due shipping quantities as well as shipping requirements bucketed into buckets (daily, weekly, monthly, fabrication authorization, material authorization, etc.) of your choosing. Alternately, for trading partners that send Kanban data, the AIM Vision Kanban Summary Report will give you the best look into shipping requirements.

Related Blogs

Be sure to check out the other three blogs in our Return to Manufacturing series:

  1. Utilize AIM Vision EDI and Order and Inventory Management to determine your inventory coverage based on demand
  2. Are You Ready to Scrutinize Supply Chain Orders and Verify Inventory Quantity on Hand
  3. How to Rev Up Your MRP and Adjust Your CRP as the Automotive Industry Restarts

We are looking forward to working with you as the automotive industry revs back up. Reach out to the AIM Consultancy Group if you are seeking any assistance managing your EDI, Kanban, bar code label or shipping data.

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