FIFO Picking

Goods of the same product can arrive in several batches, and FIFO stands for first in, first out, so when an order is picked the earliest received eligible units are selected first. A fictional shop receives shirts on Monday and Thursday, and a Friday order is filled from Monday's lot, assuming it is available and saleable, so the Thursday lot remains.

Odoo's warehouse documentation describes FIFO removal by earliest arrival date, and lot records can support that decision, but the rule is operational, not an automatic guarantee of physical rotation. A fictional system tells a worker to pick an old lot, but the worker uses a newer pallet because it is closer, and the scan record reveals the exception.

FIFO can reduce the chance that older stock becomes slow or damaged, and it is especially useful when goods age in storage. It does not make unsafe or recalled stock eligible for sale: a fictional food warehouse finds an old lot on quality hold, skips it and picks the oldest approved one, because safety status comes before rotation.

FIFO differs from FEFO, first expired, first out, which selects the batch with the earliest expiration date, and that batch may have arrived later. Use expiry rules where product safety or shelf life requires them: a fictional dairy shipment arriving Tuesday with a short expiry, after a Monday shipment with a longer one, would be picked first under FEFO, while pure FIFO would pick Monday's.

The method should be defined for each product or location, since some items are unique or made to order, and a fictional parts warehouse keeps one-off custom components for specific jobs without swapping them by arrival date. Accurate receipt timestamps matter, because stock entered days after arrival can put the system's order wrong; a fictional pallet that arrived Monday but was scanned Wednesday makes a Tuesday pallet appear older, so receiving corrects the data before the next pick, with an audit trail.

Physical layout should make old stock accessible by putting new receipts behind or in a separate location where practical, otherwise staff may repeatedly choose the easiest newer carton. A fictional warehouse that stacks fresh boxes in front of old ones leaves pickers unable to reach the intended lot until the team changes its put-away rules.

Lot or serial tracking supports FIFO verification, while loose bulk items may need a location and date method, so choose a traceable process suited to the product. A FIFO exception can be legitimate, because customer-specific requirements, damaged stock or minimum remaining shelf life may require another lot, and the reason should be recorded; a fictional buyer requiring six months of remaining life when the oldest safe lot has only four months is served from a newer qualifying lot with the reason logged.

Order allocation and physical picking can also differ, so a fictional order that reserves ten units from lot A but is picked from lot B should be rejected or explicitly approved by the system, with scans and counts reconciled. FIFO picking does not determine accounting expense recognition by itself, because the accounting FIFO cost flow can be applied under inventory standards even if physical goods are not identical to the cost layer.

A fictional finance team uses FIFO costing for homogeneous goods, yet operations still needs actual batch scans for a product recall, since one record cannot replace the other. Measure stock age, picking exceptions and waste, inspect returned items before they re-enter a FIFO pool, and train staff with clear labels, because the rule succeeds when dates, eligibility, layout and actual picks agree.