Lot removal rules

When the same product is held in several lots, the lot to be issued has to be determined. Removal rules make that decision and record the reason for it.

Stockly → Warehouses → Rules → Lot removal rules.

How a rule is chosen

The first active rule whose criteria all match wins, by priority. Where nothing matches, the system default applies.

• Priority — a lower number wins. Priority deliberately beats specificity: a broad rule with a lower number is meant to override a narrower one with a higher number.
• At equal priority, specificity settles it: variant, then parent article, then category, then manufacturer, then warehouse only, then everything.

The system default (FEFO) can neither be deleted nor edited, so the applicable rule is always defined.

Strategies

• FEFO — the soonest expiry leaves first,
• FIFO — the oldest receipt leaves first,
• LIFO — the newest leaves first.

Note

A dated lot always takes precedence over the strategy; the strategy settles ties. Goods with an expiry date are therefore never issued after goods without one merely because FIFO was set.

Minimum remaining shelf life

Minimum remaining shelf life (days) keeps lots with less time left out of picking. An empty field imposes no requirement, and a value of 1 stops expired goods from being issued.

This setting is the source of the shelf life too short marker on a pick list: the goods are there, but they may not be issued, so somebody has to decide. → Picking in practice

Scope

In the Applies to section every criterion left empty matches any value:

• Product — a rule on a parent article covers all its variants; a rule on the variant itself wins at the same priority,
• Category and Manufacturer — matched on the product or its parent, because a variant usually carries neither of its own,
• Warehouse — empty means every building.

The name of a rule

Name is the label an operator reads back when asking why a pick named a particular lot, because the name travels onto the pick task. Rules should therefore be named in operational terms, such as medicines: soonest expiry, min. 30 days, rather than in abbreviations.

The preview of the winning rule

Stockly → Warehouses → Rules → Lot removal rules → Preview is a view of its own, as with the other rule families.

Pick an article and optionally a warehouse, and the module asks the server for exactly the resolution the shelf removal itself performs. The answer names the rule that won, its priority and the criteria that decided it; where none won, it names the default rather than leaving a blank.

This is the tool for checking a rule before it goes live: no goods have to leave a shelf to see the result.

The preview also states one thing the table cannot: whether the chosen strategy changes the result. With expiry-first ordering, FIFO produces the same order as FEFO, and a rule that can be configured but changes nothing is flagged with a warning.