Side by side
| Rule | Picks first | Typical goods |
|---|---|---|
| FEFO | Earliest expiry or best-before date | Food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, chemicals |
| FIFO | Earliest received | Packaged consumer goods, spare parts |
| LIFO | Most recently received | Non-perishable bulk items, some building materials |
What the warehouse needs to apply them
- Capture at receipt: batch and expiry must be recorded when goods arrive.
- Reservation logic: the rule must be applied when stock is reserved, not left to the picker.
- Exceptions: customer-specific minimum shelf life, project reservations, blocked batches.
- Alerts: near-expiry reports before stock becomes unsellable.
Kulmen reserves stock by FEFO, FIFO or LIFO, or by user-defined rules, and supports pre-reservation on project, order and customer. See inventory and food and beverage.