GLN
Global Location Number
Every place and party you trade with can have a fixed number of its own: your warehouse, a customer's head office, a particular store, even one loading door. Trading partners put it in orders and shipping messages so nobody has to guess which address 'Main warehouse' means. That 13-digit number is called a GLN, short for global location number.
It names a place or an organisation, not a product. Your company can have one GLN for the legal entity, another for each warehouse and others for the dock doors, as detailed as your customers need.
Retailers often send orders that name the delivery point only by its GLN, so your system must be able to match the number to a real address. Ask your biggest customers which GLNs they use for you and for themselves.
In practice
A supermarket chain sends an order that names the delivery point only as a GLN. Your system matches that number to the chain's store in Leeds and its goods-in door, so the pallets are labelled for the right place without anyone phoning to ask.
Further reading
Ready to see BizBloqs on your own process?
Book a demo and we will walk your warehouse and order flow end to end — inbound, storage, picking, shipping, returns — and tell you honestly what BizBloqs would change.
Two questions about your own operation
How many of your articles sit in a pick location they empty less than once a month?
Part one: Laying out a warehouse does not start with the racking
After your last integration, how many systems hold a stock quantity for the same item? Name them.