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Let's discuss how Stock Rotation Compliance (FIFO/LIFO) can transform your operations.
Schedule a DemoStock Rotation Compliance (FIFO/LIFO)
Picker reaches for the newer lot. Red light. Pick the older one first. Green light. FIFO enforced at the point of pick.
Solution Overview
Picker reaches for the newer lot. Red light. Pick the older one first. Green light. FIFO enforced at the point of pick. This solution is part of our Inventory domain and can be deployed in 2-4 weeks using our proven tech stack.
Industries
This solution is particularly suited for:
Food & Beverage Pharma Healthcare
The Need
Your warehouse shows "500 units of Product X in stock." But when did they arrive? Which ones expire first? Your staff doesn't know. They pick from whatever's convenient. The oldest stock sits on the back shelf and expires. You discover 12% of inventory is expired or about to expire—$340,000 in annual losses.
Regulators see expired product on a shelf and cite you. FDA warning letters, fines, mandatory corrective action plans. Pharmaceutical chain? Cited for having expired inventory six months past expiration date. Fine: $45,000. Required remediation: implement formal rotation system verified by third-party audit.
When a recall happens, you can't prove which batches shipped before the recall date. Facility winds up quarantining thousands of units at secondary distributors that you knew nothing about until the investigation hit.
Expired contaminated product from a meat processing facility remained in customer inventory. Subsequent investigation found more of the same contaminated batch still in use. Recall affected 47 customers.
The core problem: you capture quantity but not receipt dates or expiration dates. You don't enforce FIFO/FEFO picking—staff use convenience. Expiration monitoring is manual shelf checks, reactive instead of proactive. Receiving, inventory management, picking, and compliance reporting don't talk to each other.
The Idea
Receiving captures critical data: product, expiration date, received date, exact location (shelf, bin position). Staff scan the barcode and confirm expiration date. System flags if expiration is within 90 days (amber) or 30 days (red critical). You know immediately: "This batch expires 2024-11-15 (47 days). High rotation priority—consume within 30 days."
Real-time expiration visibility shows products expiring in the next 7 days, 30 days, 90 days—ranked by urgency. Dashboard alerts: "Batch 2024-0847 expires in 6 days. 240 units. Prioritize this batch in picking or offer at discount to accelerate sales."
Picking is now enforced FIFO/FEFO. When a customer order arrives for 50 units, system sequences picks by expiration date (nearest first). Pick list guides staff to the right shelf/bin in the right order. Staff scan each location. If they scan the wrong location, system alerts them immediately. Expired product never ships.
Alerts escalate by urgency. Green (90+ days): normal operations. Amber (30-90 days): prioritize picking. Red (<30 days): urgent action. Critical (<7 days): product must move today or be destroyed. System generates promotional pricing suggestions, customer outreach, and destruction work orders.
Auditors get full audit-ready documentation instantly. Receiving reports showing all inventory received in past 12 months, sorted by expiration date. Pick records showing which customer got which batch on which date. Rotation audit proving product delivered before newer product still in inventory. An inspector scans a physical product and gets complete genealogy: batch, received date, location, expiration, who picked it, which customer got it, when it was picked. No surprises.
Multi-location visibility: "Across 8 distribution centers, 12% of inventory at critical expiration (147 SKU-location combos expiring in 7 days). Network-wide promotion option or inter-facility transfer based on local demand."
How It Works
flowchart TD
A[Product
Received] --> B[Capture Expiration
Date & Location] B --> C[Record in
SQLite DB] C --> D[Assign to
Inventory Lot] D --> E1[Workflow 1:
Receiving Complete] D -.->|Async| F[Continuous Expiration
Monitoring] F --> G{Days to
Expiration?} G -->|>30 days| H1[Status: Green] G -->|7-30 days| H2[Status: Amber] G -->|<7 days| H3[Status: Red/Critical] H1 --> I[Alert Manager &
Log to Alerts Table] H2 --> I H3 --> I I --> J[Recommend Action:
Prioritize/Promote/Destroy] K[Customer Order
Arrives] --> L[Query SQLite:
Inventory by FIFO/FEFO] L --> M[Sort by
Expiration Date] M --> N[Allocate to
Pick Sequence] N --> O[Generate Location
Sequence for Staff] O --> P[Direct Staff to
Locations in Order] P --> Q[Staff Scan
Barcodes] Q --> R{Location
Matches?} R -->|Yes| S[Confirm Pick] R -->|No| T[Alert Exception
Require Confirmation] T --> S S --> U{All Units
Picked?} U -->|No| O U -->|Yes| V[Deduct from
inventory_lots] V --> W[Fulfill Order
with FIFO Stock] W --> X[Generate Pick Log
Record in SQLite] J --> Y[Generate Compliance
Report Query] X --> Y Y --> Z[Prove FIFO Adherence
via Audit Trail] Z --> AA[Ready for
Regulatory Audit]
Received] --> B[Capture Expiration
Date & Location] B --> C[Record in
SQLite DB] C --> D[Assign to
Inventory Lot] D --> E1[Workflow 1:
Receiving Complete] D -.->|Async| F[Continuous Expiration
Monitoring] F --> G{Days to
Expiration?} G -->|>30 days| H1[Status: Green] G -->|7-30 days| H2[Status: Amber] G -->|<7 days| H3[Status: Red/Critical] H1 --> I[Alert Manager &
Log to Alerts Table] H2 --> I H3 --> I I --> J[Recommend Action:
Prioritize/Promote/Destroy] K[Customer Order
Arrives] --> L[Query SQLite:
Inventory by FIFO/FEFO] L --> M[Sort by
Expiration Date] M --> N[Allocate to
Pick Sequence] N --> O[Generate Location
Sequence for Staff] O --> P[Direct Staff to
Locations in Order] P --> Q[Staff Scan
Barcodes] Q --> R{Location
Matches?} R -->|Yes| S[Confirm Pick] R -->|No| T[Alert Exception
Require Confirmation] T --> S S --> U{All Units
Picked?} U -->|No| O U -->|Yes| V[Deduct from
inventory_lots] V --> W[Fulfill Order
with FIFO Stock] W --> X[Generate Pick Log
Record in SQLite] J --> Y[Generate Compliance
Report Query] X --> Y Y --> Z[Prove FIFO Adherence
via Audit Trail] Z --> AA[Ready for
Regulatory Audit]
FIFO/FEFO-enforced picking workflow with real-time expiration monitoring, alerts, compliance documentation, and regulatory audit readiness.
The Technology
All solutions run on the IoTReady Operations Traceability Platform (OTP), designed to handle millions of data points per day with sub-second querying. The platform combines an integrated OLTP + OLAP database architecture for real-time transaction processing and powerful analytics.
Deployment options include on-premise installation, deployment on your cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), or fully managed IoTReady-hosted solutions. All deployment models include identical enterprise features.
OTP includes built-in backup and restore, AI-powered assistance for data analysis and anomaly detection, integrated business intelligence dashboards, and spreadsheet-style data exploration. Role-based access control ensures appropriate information visibility across your organization.
Frequently Asked Questions
Deployment Model
Rapid Implementation
2-4 week implementation with our proven tech stack. Get up and running quickly with minimal disruption.
Your Infrastructure
Deploy on your servers with Docker containers. You own all your data with perpetual license - no vendor lock-in.
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