Cold-chain warehouse

Before

The food distributor had three cold rooms and ran stock by counting cartons. The expiry date was on the carton, not in a system. Once a yogurt shipment with two weeks left sat behind a fresher load, and by the time it was pulled forward it could not be sold. The storekeeper saw the loss. Purchasing saw it the next week.

Temperature was written in the shift book. If cold room two left its range at night, someone might leaf through the book in the morning, or might not. When a store complained, the company could not show what temperature that batch had seen. Issues were whatever carton was at hand, not necessarily the one that arrived first.

What was built

The item card keeps the arrival date, the expiry, and the cold room for each batch. The suggested issue is the batch closest to expiry. The storekeeper can override it, but has to write a reason. Each room's temperature for the day is posted onto the loads inside it.

The report brings forward batches that expire within seven days, so sales can change the price before the write-off. A store complaint is tied to a batch, and that day's recorded temperature sits beside it.

A working day

In the morning a yogurt load arrives in cold room two. The storekeeper posts the batch, the expiry, and the temperature on the card. At noon a store order comes for the same item. The system suggests the batch with eight days left, not the one with three weeks. The issue draws from that batch.

At night the temperature leaves the range and the loads in that room are flagged. In the morning the manager sees the flag before the shipment goes to the store. At the end of the week the report says which goods should be sold sooner. That month's yogurt write-off stopped being a guess and became a number.

The result

First-in first-out became the habit, because the system itself puts the batch closest to expiry in front. The loss from a load left at the back did not repeat.

When a store complained about a batch, the company showed that night's temperature. The argument did not start from we don't remember. The three cold rooms are still separate. The date and the temperature sit on the item card, not only on the carton.