FEFO, lot tracking, and being ready for the recall call

Every distributor of anything with a date on it — candy, snacks, beverages, refrigerated, tobacco with state stamps — eventually gets one of two phone calls. The mild one is a customer asking why they received product with 30 days left. The bad one starts with "there's been a recall." Lot discipline is how both calls become routine instead of expensive.

FEFO beats FIFO

First-in-first-out feels natural, but what the customer cares about is the date on the package, not when you received it. First-expiring-first-out picks the shortest-dated sellable stock first, which is the only rotation rule that actually minimizes what you scrap. FEFO only works if expiry is captured as data — which brings us to receiving.

Capture lots where the truck arrives

The only cheap place to capture a lot code and expiry date is at receiving, while the pallet is in front of someone. Reconstructing lots later from invoices and memory is somewhere between painful and impossible. Your system should make lot + expiry a field on the receiving screen, not a spreadsheet someone maintains on the side.

What recall readiness really means

When a manufacturer recalls lot X, you need three answers in minutes: how much of lot X is still in the building (and exactly where), which customers received it (with dates, quantities, and invoices), and proof you notified them. Regulators and insurers both ask for the same thing: a documented trace, fast. If producing that list takes days of digging, you don't have lot tracking — you have lot paperwork.

The margin case, not just the compliance case

Lot data also quietly pays for itself: less shrink from expired stock, fewer credits for short-dated deliveries, and the ability to promise date-sensitive customers ("nothing under 90 days") and prove you kept it. That's a selling point your competitors on paper systems can't make.

DistroLync OMS captures lot and expiry at receiving, picks FEFO by default, and answers the recall question — stock on hand and every customer shipment for any lot — from one screen. See it on your catalog.