SSCC ID Creation Methodology for EDI Shipments

Kinetic ERP
1

In the midst of implementing Kinetic Cloud 2023.1 right now. Trying to find best method for SSCC ID generation to include with the 856 ASN. Legal Number, PCID or Bartender?

Our legacy ERP is very fragmented in this process. SSCC packages for EDI shipments is done off-ERP, uploaded to ERP, and manually put into the vendor portal ASN. The SSCC is done with Loftware label designer and an excel file is generated for each label. A script reads that excel as data source to write to the SQL. Shipping prints an ERP report and manually enters the SSCC ID’s in to the ASN in the vendors portal. (yikes, I know)

For future state with Kinetic, we have Bartender in place of Loftware. However, having Bartender generate the SSCC codes and then sending them back to Kinetic seems less streamlined than if we could have them generated in Kinetic, included in the ASN transmission and just let Bartender print the labels. Trying to figure out the better option between Legal Number and PCID (or Bartender if it is truly better). Any advice? Our code is a GS1-128.

  • Laz
2

We are currently generating SSCC codes for ASN. For this purpose we added a UD field in ShipDtl table. This field stores the SSCC code that is then sent to the Bartender for label and also included in the ASN.
In our case we need on label per skid. For this we added another UD field on this table to record the skid number. The SSCC then appends the skid number to the Pack Number to make it unique.
A data directive is used to generate the SSCC code including the check digit.

1 Like
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Ok. That makes sense, I hadn’t thought about writing a data directive to gen it. We could set the GS1 + increment on that and generate a code. Reading about it, I see some folks were using PCID and others were “looking” at using Legal Number and then populating those into a UDField in the customer shipment entry for the ASN.

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Epicor has a built in method to generate SSCC-18 codes through the legal number route.

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There is a step by step guide on how to set it in the help section, but basically you configure the legal number to generate the code and assign the legal number to the appropriate document type, and it generates when you create a pack.

We use this method and it was simple to set up and works great with no custom solution necessary.

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Thanks for the direction! If we can set this up to build the GS1 Codes and associate it with pack, that would be perfect. Our team is testing this route out now.

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Can the Epicor built in SSCC18 generate codes for individual Packslip lines.

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We are in EDI Testing now with one trading partner requiring individual codes per packslip lines. did you find any solution to this?

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We did. We used Legal Number as the tool that generates the ID inside of Epicor so it can easily be included in the ASN as a data field and placed onto the label via Bartender. In our Current State (we have not gone live yet and use Infor Visual on-prem v. 9.07) we use Loftware labeling which has a code to generate the ID when the label is printed, we exrtract the data from Loftware to Excel, and have a script draw the information from excel to the Infor SQL database associated on the Pack ID key. Then shipping prints an SSRS report from the company intranet reports page and they manually go into the trading partner’s EDI portal and update each ASN with the SSCC ID’s for each package on the shipment. Lots of room for error and systems to troubleshoot. With this future state in Epicor, there should be no intervention beyond checking that the legal number produced an SSCC ID for the package. We may need multiple releases to break out a shipped vs. back-ordered qty, but it all still fits in the Kinetic core workflows. Legal Number has functionality innate to it that can deliver on content type: “SSCC” as a sort of pre-set.

Here are my notes (they are raw notes from our config/test session and I don’t have Bartender’s peice setup yet for a true unit test to completion, but you see the pathway we are on. This is a generally accepted practice for this use-case (from what I understand via Epicor Consultant(s)):

—begin notes
Need to have Automatic Generate SSCC code, to generate the application ID number.

Extension digit - can be set at package code or legal number - this is set at the package code:

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The Check Digit is divided by the combination of all the numbers; calculator on GS1 site.
Check Digit Calculator – GS1 US

GS1 only cares about the application identifier, check digit and then the company prefix will be our prefix.

How do you select SSCC code for only certain shipments?
Don’t mark any legal documents as Default. Then, in Customer Shipment Entry, select the appropriate legal number for that shipment.

For testing, we would want to have it set to generate at the time of saving. Go-live, we may want to change to Print.

Setting Up Document for SSCC ID
Transaction Document Type
Add New
EDI PACK
Add Description
System Transaction = packing slips
If you check Default for System Transaction, it will
Select Save

Legal Number Setup
Legal Number app
Cerate ID
Create Description
Generateion type = Automatic
Generate SSCC checked.
Generate on Save
0000000 is the company prefix (redacted our ID).
Select Save
Open the Document Type card

Using Legal Numbers on a Shipment
Open the Customer Shipment app.
Create a new shipment or click on a pack list’s hyperlinked ID to open it.
Under Legal Number, select EDI SSCC ID TYPE
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Select Save
Number is generated
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If a legal number has already been assigned, when you go to view or print shipping labels, the Assign Legal Number will be grayed out:
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Setting Legal Number on Package Code
Package Code Entry
(type in package details)
Type in “1” in the Extension Digit Field (verify this in video)
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Select Save.

The packing slip hit the server, but we need to configure Bartender to get that format.

Process the order Amazon sent through to test, with the SSCC ID.

We have a few printers; the Dymo that does address labels and the bigger printer that prints the labels for our EDI trading partners. Bartender requires a networked label printer that processes ZPL language… essentially a Zebra or Zebra-Emulated Label Printer.

We have an open request with the Bartender consultant to create label templates or let us know which one we would use. I am told we can download the standard template file for various common trading partners like Amazon. Would like to have one for the partners who require SSCC.

SSCC ID test order under EDI Use Case:
Demand Entry App
Demand Header
Process

Created Order 20096

Uncheck Hold
Send Acknowledgement

Customer Shipment Entry:
Changed Legal Document to SSCC ID

Print labels

Mark as shipped
Select Save
Then we’ll check with the EDI team to see that everything went through OK.

Legal Number History Report:

—end notes
—begin Comments/Clarifications

Question: if they order less than pallet load, then each box needs to have its own label and each box has its own label. How do you print different SSCC ID numbers in the same shipment?
Mary Beth - For Amazon, we need to individually pack a box with its own SSCC ID label. The only time we can do one SSCC ID for multiple Qty, is when you ship a pallet load.
Marcelo - in Epicor you’ll need to create a new pack for each SSCC ID. Or multiple releases for the same pack.

Or, have Bartender create the ID?

Follow-up Notes from Marcelo:

[4:11 PM] Marcelo Quintanilla

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“00” What does define the “00” first two digits? (AI) Application Identifier s Defaulted because in Legal Number the SSCC was selected:

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Why does the Extension Digit Changed from 1(Package Code) to 0 (Legal Number)? à If no package code is selected then it uses the extension Digit from Legal Number (it’s in both).

GS1 Company Prefix: In this case was set as 0000000 (redacted confidential) but can be 10 digits.

Check Digit: is generated apparently if you use the Generator from GS1 it working the same as Epicor.
Check Digit Calculator – GS1 US

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I have not checked that specifically, but, setting up your releases should enable this functionality. More work at the Pack creation process.

Since the SSCC ID is meant to identify what line items and quantities are contained in the packlist, I have found it is a single number generated at the packlist level. The question did come up, however, that if we needed to have an SSCC ID generated for each quantity of an item (so, one line item shows an order quantity of five (5), and customer wants each individually packed and shipped), we would need to setup multiple releases for that line item and then create a pack ID for each release, thereby generating multiple SSCC ID’s per line.

1 Like
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Thank you, we ended up in the same place although we are generating the SSCC on all pack slips - we still need to create individual packs (SSCC) for each ITEM / Carton if the pallet contains multiple items. So, it’s one Pack for each item in the shipment. I’m told by our EDI consultants there is a customization that can be done that will generate separate SSCC for each line item on the pack, but we aren’t going to go down that road for now. Maybe a future state.

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And so it is, Val… :slight_smile:

That we pressed through an evaluation of this in process. Sure enough, the requirement you defined raised it’s head and we felt consumed by poor workflow. The way we initially set it up and tested with our core consultant, we had to manipulate things upstream repeatedly. We engaged an elevated BARTENDER specialist and, well, the customization they have developed keeps things aligned to the warehouse/shipping op’s where the packing happens. It also gives us some room for error correction (labels failed to print, repacking needed, data entry errors, etc.). It appears to be the best solution for the use case and our guy seems pretty well schooled on that. We are going to pursue it and I will update results.

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This ends up being a great solution for that unique identifier traceability from skid to pack. I think we are putting in some part of the same customization (er, are we calling these customizations or “personalizations” now if they are low-code data directives and UD fields. NO SDK needed). I can see now, where this fits for us.

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Thanks for the update Michael, sounds like you found a good solution. we do not use bartender however maybe i need to look into it further.

we went live last week and so far have yet to generate a shipment for EDI customer that requires the label. we are continuing on with the one pack per item for now… will look at further customization down the road.