Batch tracking and expiry dates, without the waste
Batch tracking records a lot number and an expiry date for each delivery of an item, so you can tell two deliveries of the same product apart. FEFO, first expired first out, means you pick the lot that expires soonest.
A shopkeeper walks into the cooler on a Tuesday morning and finds nine bottles of a drink that expired last week. They sat behind a newer shipment, so nobody saw them. Nobody was careless. The shelf was simply arranged so the old stock hid at the back.
If you sell anything with a date on it, such as food, paint, adhesives, cosmetics, chemicals or medical supplies, the quantity on the shelf is only half the story. The other half is how long it is good for.
What a lot is
A lot, sometimes called a batch, is a group of units made or received together. The maker stamps it with a number, so if there is a problem, they can say which units are affected. For you, a lot is a label that lets you tell two deliveries of the same item apart.
Without lot tracking, 60 units of primer is one pile. With it, you have 20 units from March that expire in December, and 40 from June that expire the following May. Same item, same shelf, very different urgency.
An invented timeline. Lot B arrived later and lasts longer, so Lot A is the one to sell first.
First expired, first out
FEFO means first expired, first out. Of the lots you hold, you pick the one that expires soonest. It is common sense with a name: sell the milk that goes off on Thursday before the milk that goes off on Saturday.
It is not the same as first in, first out, which picks whichever lot arrived earliest. Usually the two agree. When they do not, FEFO is the one that saves you money, because a late delivery can carry an earlier date.
Sell the milk that goes off on Thursday before the milk that goes off on Saturday.
What you know
Without lots
60 units of primer
With lots
20 expire in December, 40 the next May
A recall question
Without lots
We have some, somewhere
With lots
Which shelf and which orders
Write-offs
Without lots
Whole piles
With lots
Only the expired units
| Without lots | With lots | |
|---|---|---|
| What you know | 60 units of primer | 20 expire in December, 40 the next May |
| A recall question | We have some, somewhere | Which shelf and which orders |
| Write-offs | Whole piles | Only the expired units |
What goes wrong without it
- Old stock hides behind new and expires unseen.
- You cannot answer a recall question: 'Which customers got lot 4471?'
- You write off whole piles because you do not know which units are still good.
- Someone ships an expired unit, and a customer finds it.
The first is cheap. The last is not.
How to start small
You do not need to track lots on everything. Start with the products where an expired unit costs real money or real trouble. Record the lot number and the expiry date when the delivery arrives, since that is the only time the information is easy to read. Then make a habit of checking what expires in the next month, before it surprises you. For the rotation rules in full, see FIFO, FEFO and LIFO: which stock rotation method to use.
- Read the lot number
- Read the expiry date
- Record both against the receipt
- Label the box if the maker did not
- Put it away, soonest date at the front
The recall question
Imagine a manufacturer phones to say lot 4471 of a cleaning concentrate has a labeling problem, and asks you to pull it. Without lot records, the honest answer is 'we have some of that on the shelf, somewhere.' You pull every unit, or you guess.
With lot records, you open the item and see that lot 4471 arrived on the 12th in a delivery of 24, that 14 were picked, and that 10 are on shelf B-04. You also know which orders the 14 went to, so you can warn those customers rather than hoping they read the news.
Most shops never face a recall. The ones that do remember it for years. Lot numbers are cheap insurance, and the cheapest moment to buy them is at receiving, when the number is printed right in front of you.