The Expiration Report is going to provide you with a list of all of your inventory with an upcoming expiration date. So now what? The goal, of course, is to eliminate the scenario where an item actually reaches its expiration date. One of the simplest options is to make sure products with the earliest expiration date get pulled first during a case. Here are some ideas to make sure that happens:
- Tag: print out your expiration report and grab a red pen or sticker. Go through and mark or sticker all of the products from your report. Inform everyone that pulls product to always pull tagged products first
- Organize: since you likely have more than one of most products on the shelf, establish a consistent method of how items are organized. Define a methodology where products get sorted from left to right, or right to left, based on expiration date. This way everyone knows to always pull from the left or right side, based on which method you choose. This applies to hanging items as well; items should be organized from oldest to newest, front-to-back
- Educate: capital wasted on expired product can be significant and negatively impacts everyone in the supply chain. Simply educating all staff on the importance of trying to minimize this preventable waste can help everyone make more educated decisions while working with items and improve operation efficiency
Another factor which can help minimize expired items is doing regular reviews and updates to your par levels. By lowering par levels for items with decreased utilization, you can ensure that product turnover is adequate within typical shelf life cycles. The goal is to keep items moving through the system without excess items going to waste on the shelf, while still satisfying demand.