CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS
Solving logistics challenges the kaizen way
CHALLENGE Peak period and season agility
As ASICS’ operation grew to include e-commerce in addition to retail sales, managing peak days and seasons has become more complex. Increased invoice and freight volumes and new logistical complexities required to increase service levels to meet growing customer expectations, making it impossible to audit more than two million shipments.
SOLUTION Implementation of Transporeon Freight Audit
Freight Audit provides automated invoice processing, cost coding and audit control, replacing manual and time-consuming processes. This also provided ‘one single source of truth’ with audited data, offering a foundation for managing increased volume and complexity.
KEY BENEFITS
Faster, automated invoice review process
Improved service levels for omnichannel customers
Resilient supply chain processes enabling growth
CHALLENGE A time-consuming manual workflow
Freight invoicing and cost allocation were manual and varied by carrier, leading to delays, data errors and a significant time investment for the Accounts Payable team. Invoices were received via email or downloads, and then manually uploaded, VAT coded and sent for cost coding. This required multiple approvals, creating individual dependencies and discrepancies.
SOLUTION Standardised and automated invoice auditing
Through a standardised, automated invoice system, Freight Audit ensures accurate invoicing for what was actually shipped. This system replaced manual steps and included six key internal process improvements, such as VAT setups, cost coding structures, master data correction and electronic data interchange (EDI) message enhancement.
KEY BENEFITS
Faster processing, approval and analysis
Improved data integrity with fewer manual inputs
Increased Accounts Payable efficiency
CHALLENGE Limited visibility on cost and profitability
Invoice auditing relied on sporadic manual checks, resulting in diminished transport cost accuracy and visibility. Complex and inconsistent cost coding made it difficult to assess the true impact of transport costs on customer profitability. A lack of insight into costs per unit (including SKU level) and accurate freight spend, coupled with difficulty in ensuring consistent cost allocation, obscured true profitability.
SOLUTION Enhanced data and standardised cost coding
Through standardised processes, Freight Audit provides enhanced data visibility and accuracy and more actionable insights. The solution also includes a comprehensive cost coding overview (200+ scenarios) to ensure consistent and accurate cost allocation. This combination directly addressed limited visibility, inaccuracies and obscured profitability.
KEY BENEFITS
Increased accuracy and detail of cost insights
Improved visibility of the impact of transport costs
Enhanced freight spend and profitability analysis
CHALLENGE Data quality issues and carrier complexity
ASICS faced challenges with data quality, including difficulties identifying essential shipment data for audits and issues with outdated master data in internal systems. Compounding this were complexities from working with multiple carriers, each having intricate rate cards and varying VAT regulations, which made accurate invoicing and auditing challenging.
SOLUTION Data-focused processes and strategic partnership
Freight Audit corrected outdated master data and enhanced EDI messages with carriers for increased accuracy. Simultaneously, ASICS formed a strategic partnership with Transporeon, leveraging their expertise in freight audits, VAT regulations, and EU carrier connections to provide a customised and scalable solution that understood their complex setups.
KEY BENEFITS
Refined master data for improved accuracy
Enhanced EDI messages for better data exchange
More effective management of complex carrier setups
CHALLENGE Inconsistent internal alignment and workflow
ASICS sought to improve collaboration and data flow between Logistics, Finance (VAT, Accounts Payable, Business Control, Procurement, Finance Excellence), and Technology teams.
SOLUTION Cross-functional collaboration and thorough user acceptance testing (UAT)
Fostered close collaboration between teams, translating business requirements into clear data mapping and ensuring project success. Additionally, extensive UAT was conducted to identify and correct issues and familiarise the ASICS and carrier teams with the new system and processes.
KEY BENEFITS
Seamless data flow
Improved cross-functional collaboration
Proactive issue resolution
© 2025 Trimble Inc.
© 2025 Trimble Inc.