Inventory & shelf life

Apply the right shelf-life rule

Reviewed policies distinguish manufacture, receipt, best-before, expiry and first-opening evidence. Timezone and cutoff rules make the actual eligibility boundary explicit, including how missing required dates are handled.

Expiry and applicable open-life deadlines block use and shipment. Best-before treatment and customer minimum remaining life follow their approved policies. The customer check uses the agreed delivery date, so a rescheduled delivery can require a new lot selection even when an earlier allocation was suitable.

Quality Manager independently reviews supported date corrections or extensions with evidence and retained history. Repacking and relabeling preserve prior age; a changed date alone does not establish fitness.

Move and reserve without losing ownership

Reservations distinguish available quantity from stock already claimed for a customer or batch. Converting a soft claim to a hard claim replaces its earlier state; picking then carries that ownership through the physical work.

Warehouse Manager independently authorizes protected transfers and stock decisions. Warehouse Operator records actual handling and partial destination receipt. A short or uncertain transfer remains unresolved at its real location rather than becoming a complete receipt at both ends.

Manual or imported storage observations retain their actual time, source and affected scope. Deviations feed the appropriate quality review and hold; recording an observation is distinct from operating a sensor or controlling storage equipment.

Count and correct the right population

A physical count locks the scoped warehouse positions and compares actual stock with the retained identity and version snapshot. Away transit and issued WIP are reconciled separately from a floor count.

Independent Warehouse Manager reviews adjustments. Discovered or changed identities, held or committed stock and above-value differences require the additional Finance Manager review and known cost specified by policy. Quantity and percentage tolerance tests remain distinct; an expected-zero discovery needs explicit review.

Bring returns back under control

Customer returns preserve the original shipment and issue-cost lineage and enter the required quality hold before reuse. Supplier returns remove the current carrying of the actual receipt descendants sent back. Physical disposition, commercial credit and cash refund remain separate decisions.

Consumed, shipped or otherwise committed descendants must be traced before a correction. Restoring quantity at an exhausted source would conceal the performed work. Lot Availability and Shelf Life shows current eligibility, while the allocation and dispatch process follows that stock through actual handover.