FIFO/FEFO and Batches

If you have products that have expirations dates or require batch tracking then StoreFeeder allows you to process these automatically without your pickers needing to worry about where to go to ensure you are sending out the shortest dated products first. 

You will need to be on multiple stock locations as FIFO and batching is controlled by each batch being in its own stock location.  Please contact support for details.

How to make a product FIFO

Setting this up is a simple operation,  firstly you will need to mark any products that you wish to be a First In First Out product as below:

We would recommend that prior to doing this that you separate out your existing batches into separate stock locations.  You will then be able to edit the expiry\batch against that location as details later in this knowledgebase.  This will avoid older exising stock possibly being stranded.

From that point onward, whenever booking in a Purchase Order for a product marked as FIFO you will be presented with 2 new options that will allow you to enter an Expiry Date and Batch number:

• Expiry dates will affect the picking order for your pickers as required.  If not entered then picking will be based on standard FIFO rules of the date the stock was booked in.
• Batch numbers will be attached to orders for tracing and recall purposes.  This is not manadatory.

You are able to filter the product grid for FIFO\Non FIFO by adding the FIFO column onto your view.

Booking in FIFO Products
Please note: You cannot update Batch Reference and Expiry Date in bulk.

You are able to either book in all of the stock with the same details or of you have been sent multiple batch numbers or expiry dates in the delivery then you can split.  In the following example with will go down the route of multiple batches.

15 units of batch1 with an expiry of 22-04-2024 was booked into stock location A01.1.05 that has a stock location order of 504

We then attempt to book in the following 15 units from batch2 with an expiry of 29-04-2024 also into A01.1.05.  This action will be blocked because you cannot have multiple batches of a product in the same stock location.

as we cannot book in to that location the remaining 15 units of batch2 with an expiry of 29-04-2024 was booked into stock location A01.1.16 that has a stock location order of 515

14 units of existing stock is also located in N11.5.22 with location order 23597 that predates the product being marked as FIFO so there is no expiry\batch info.

You can see details of batches and expiries on a product on the Stock Locations section on the product page as below:

FIFO in Action

Now we will move onto the next steps of picking.  There is no user action that is required at this stage as StoreFeeder will intelligently allocate stock from the correct location.

Scenario 1 - Expiry dated products

You will see below that an order was placed for 5 units and the system has allocated 5 from A01.1.05 as would be expected normal as this location also has the lowest location order, but in this case it has been chosen because it has the earliest expiry date.

But if we change the expiry date on batch2 to be before batch1 as below:

And add the same order onto a pickwave again you will now see that the system has correctly alloctaed stock from A01.1.16 as stock in that location now expires sooner than the stock in A01.1.05 so this needs picking first even though it has a higher stock location order.

Scenario 2 - A combination of expirable and non-expirable stock

In the next scenario we will set the stock location order of N11.5.22 to 300 which in normal circumstances would the first location to pick from.  When adding the order back to a new pickwave you will see that stock is still allocated from A01.1.16 as that location has the lowest expiry date.

As there was existing stock in N11.5.22 prior to converting the product to FIFO, it doesnt have any expiry date associated so will be ignored until all expiry dated stock is consumed.

In this case to ensure the oldest stock is picked and despatched you are able to edit the stock location product information to give it an expiry date and ensure its picked first. This would need to be done for all pre-existing stock location product entries.

Scenario 3 - Non-Expirable products (Delivery date controlled)

The final scenario will be the picking order controlled by the Delivered Date.  In the event your products are not expirable and you would still like to despatch by batches then the system will pick your stock in the order it was delievered.  Any only stock again that doesnt have a delivered date would need manual intervention as above by setting an expiry date to ensure its picked first. 

In this final image you will see the existing stock has been given an expiry date and the expiry dates have been removed from the 2 batches in the earlier examples.

So in this instance the stock located in N11.5.22 will be picked first as it has an expiry date, followed by A01.1.05 and finally A01.1.16 in delivered date order.