3PL EDI Integrations & Common EDI Transactions in Third Party Logistics

A 3PL (third-party logistics) provider offers third-party (or outsourced) logistics services for a partial or complete function of their supply chain management. Most successful 3PLs use EDI (electronic data interchange), which is the structured transmission of electronic documents between them and the supplier/s.

How does EDI work for 3PL companies?

3PLs (third-party logistics providers) offer outsourced logistics services, warehousing, inventory management, picking, packing, and reverse logistics. When a company works with a 3PL, it outsources its order fulfilment process and management operations to a 3PL organization and streamlines delivery workflow. EDI provides most reliable, secure, and economical way to communicate information with 3PL providers. EDI easily integrates with ANY ERP system including any shipping service, warehouse management system, accounting program, API connection and more

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a data communication protocol that exchange business information and documents digitally through a standard electronic format between organizations. It is used by 3PLs to automate the transactions and improve inventory management capabilities. With EDI, high volume transactions are easily streamlined and automated and it also eliminates manual keying of the information into invoices, and dispatch system. EDI enables companies to give access for 3PL to easily process and fulfill orders for real time delivery.

Common 3PL Warehouse EDI Business Documents:

EDI 940 Warehouse Shipping Order: This transaction set is used to instruct remote warehouses to make a shipment. It is also used to make a shipment, confirm a shipment, modify a shipment or previous shipping order. Specific information provided in this warehouse shipping order includes manufacturer, shipping method, item quantities, number, ship and bill information

EDI 943 Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice: This document type is used to advise the recipient on a specific transfer shipment that has occurred. EDI 943 provides a receiving location with detailed information regarding the concerning product being shipped to the same. This usually includes shipment date, goods manufacturer, warehouse details, transportation & items information

944 Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice: This transaction set can be used by a receiving location to inform manufacturers that a transfer shipment has been received. This document also provides detailed information concerning the product that has been received. It also makes the information available to the depositor or the agent of depositor concerning product that has been received

EDI 945 Warehouse Shipping Advice: The EDI 945 transaction set is used by a 3PL warehouse to notify a supplier that a shipment has been sent. Information on the Warehouse Shipping Advice transaction usually includes the supplier information, date shipment was made, transportation information and ship-from & ship-to information

EDI 947 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice: The EDI 947 transaction set is used to inform a warehouse/depositor of quantity or status change in inventory record. This transaction set also provides detail information about warehouse’s internal adjustments which occurs between a warehouse and a depositor

EEDI 997 Functional Acknowledgement: The Functional Acknowledgment specifically used in an EDI environment, tells the sender that document has arrived and was processed by the recipient

Benefits of EDI for 3PL:

EDI significantly increases efficiency and accuracy for the supplier and a 3PL warehouse. It reduces costs, improves operational performance, increases accuracy and speeds up order fulfilment processing. With the help of EDI, 3PL providers handle many more shipments, offer better customer service and effectively manage inventory, packing and shipping processes. It also saves time by automating communications with 3PL warehouses.

How Infocon Systems works with Third Party Logistics (3PL) companies

Infocon Systems is an established EDI solutions provider providing easy-to-use, scalable solutions to cater to all business needs of your 3PL business. Infocon provides fast setup of your EDI mailbox and easy training of its EDI web portal along with giving you 24/7 access to its specialists. We are working on the behalf of customer for integrating their data with 3PL System.

The whole process can be divided into 3 Steps:-

• In the very first step, we receive the 940 & 856 EDI from trading partner and validate it according to the specification. If file gets validated successfully then we proceed to our next part else we notify back to customer with validation error.
• In second step, Infocon convert 940 & 856 EDI file as per 3PL system’s structure and format and placed on their FTP site or API server so that customer can pick the file from our server.
• In third step, we receive 3PL 945 & 944 data file and validate it according to the specification. If file gets validated successfully then we proceed to our next part else we notify back to customer with validation error.
• In the fourth and final step, Infocon convert 3PL 945 & 944 EDI file as per EDI specification and placed through the VAN so that trading partner can pick it.

To know more on how we implement EDI for 3PL companies and integrate into any of their internal systems, contact our sales department at +1 888-339-0722 or email us at sales@infoconn.com