FEFO and FIFO

FIFO (First In, First Out) and FEFO (First Expired, First Out) are the two most common rotation rules in a warehouse. They are frequently confused and they are not interchangeable.

The difference

• FIFO — what arrived first ships first. The criterion is the receiving date.
• FEFO — what expires first ships first. The criterion is the expiry date.

They look equivalent, and they are as long as all product arrives with the same remaining shelf life. They stop being equivalent the moment a lot enters with less life than one received earlier — common when there are several suppliers or opportunistic purchases.

In that scenario FIFO ships the product with more life left and leaves the expiring one in the rack. FEFO does the opposite, which is correct.

When each applies

FEFO is mandatory when the product has an expiry date: food, beverage, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, chemicals.

FIFO is sufficient when the product does not expire but does deteriorate or become obsolete: spare parts, electronics, seasonal apparel.

Why it cannot be sustained manually

Both rules require knowing, at the moment of picking, which lot sits in which position and with what date. That is lot-level control, and in practice it only holds up with a WMS that directs the operator to the correct location instead of leaving it to judgment.