DESADV
Also: Despatch Advice · Advance Shipping Notice · ASN · delivery notification
DESADV is the EDIFACT message for an electronic despatch advice. It announces a shipment before it arrives and can represent the packaging structure of a delivery alongside article and quantity data.
What it is
DESADV stands for "Despatch Advice". The message is typically generated once dispatch preparation is complete, or at goods issue, and transmitted to the recipient before the goods arrive.
Besides sender, recipient, order and delivery note information, DESADV can describe the structure of a shipment hierarchically. Among other things, the consignment packing sequence is used for this. It can represent, for example, which cartons sit on which pallet and what article quantities are held at each packaging level.
Where GS1 standards are used, logistics units can be identified uniquely by an SSCC — in Germany often referred to as NVE. The SSCC on the logistics label then links the physical unit to the data transmitted electronically beforehand. Depending on the process, batches, best-before dates or further product-related information can be transmitted as well.
In many process chains DESADV sits between the order and the invoice: ORDERS describes the requirement, DESADV the delivery actually shipped, and INVOIC the settlement.
In practice
The greatest benefit arises where the recipient prepares goods receipt on the basis of the advice and can reconcile it automatically. If a logistics unit is uniquely labelled and the packaging hierarchy transmitted correctly, a scan can bring up the announced contents. How far that may be posted automatically depends on the recipient's validation rules.
What is decisive, therefore, is the correspondence between the physical shipment and the electronic message. If something is repacked in dispatch, a pallet is split or a quantity changed, that change has to be reflected in the data.
The timing of the message matters just as much. A despatch advice should be available to the recipient before the goods are. If it is generated considerably later, it cannot fulfil its purpose for goods-receipt planning and advance checking.
We therefore tie DESADV as closely as possible to the data and events that actually arise in dispatch, rather than assembling a message afterwards from separate sources.
When it affects you
DESADV is used particularly often in retail, automotive, industry and in centrally organised warehouse structures. Whether a despatch advice is mandatory, and what content is expected, follows from the agreement and the implementation guideline of the trading partner concerned.
For a dependable implementation the relevant dispatch data has to exist in your own system: which goods are in which logistics unit, which references belong to them, and when the shipment counts as ready to ship. Walking through one real dispatch usually reveals quickly which data is already available and where gaps in the process remain.