Decide which units leave first
Understand removal strategies
Why this step
Reservation says how much; removal strategy says which physical units. For aluminium this is not academic — two bars from different batches can differ visibly in a powder-coated finish standing side by side on an elevation.
What this does
When the same product sits in several places, several packages, or arrived on several dates, the removal strategy decides which exact units a reservation grabs — and therefore which units the picker is told to take. It is a policy you set once, on a product category or a storage location, and it applies at every reservation after that. Four strategies exist on this system: First In First Out (FIFO), Last In First Out (LIFO), Closest Location, and Least Packages. There is no expiry-based FEFO here — expiration-date tracking is not enabled on this system.
Before you start
- For location-level strategies: the Storage Locations feature and access to Inventory › Configuration › Locations.
- Honest location names, if you plan to use Closest Location — it follows the alphabet, not the floor plan (below).
Setting a strategy
-
01
For a product family: open Inventory › Configuration › Product Categories, pick the category, and set Force Removal Strategy in the Logistics block.
-
02
For a place instead: open Inventory › Configuration › Locations, pick the location, and choose a Removal Strategy in its Logistics block.
-
03
Leave both empty to keep the default — FIFO, everywhere.
-
04
Check the precedence if you set both: the category always wins ("force" is meant literally); the location is consulted only when the category is silent, and a sub-location without a strategy inherits from its parents.
What each strategy really does
FIFO takes the units with the oldest incoming date first — the rotation default, covered in its own article. LIFO is the mirror: newest first, for the rare stack where the last pallet in is the only reachable one. Closest Location deserves its honest description: it sorts the candidate sub-locations alphabetically by their full name and takes from the first. It approximates "closest" only if your location names are deliberately coded in walking order — and it sorts as text, so Shelf 10 comes before Shelf 2. Least Packages is the only strategy that looks at the quantity being asked for: it searches for the smallest number of packages whose contents exactly cover the demand (three 40-unit boxes rather than opening five), preferring an exact fit, and falls back to plain FIFO — silently — when the stock is not in packages at all.
Two behaviours apply whatever you choose. Units carrying a lot or serial number are consumed before untracked units of the same product. And the strategy is consulted at reservation time only: changing it never re-shuffles what is already reserved — the new order applies from the next Check Availability onwards.
What this system runs today
Nothing is set: every product category and every location on this system leaves the strategy empty, so all removal is FIFO by default. That is a reasonable place to be — set a strategy when a real flow demands one, not because the field exists.
Troubleshooting
Changed the strategy but pickings did not change — existing reservations keep their units; unreserve and re-check availability to apply the new order, and only new reservations follow it automatically.
Closest Location picks a "far" shelf — the sort is alphabetical on the full location name; rename locations into a deliberate order or accept the alphabet.
Least Packages ignored the packages — it needs the stock to actually be in packages; loose stock makes it plain FIFO with no warning. It also gives up on impossibly large searches the same silent way.
Looking for FEFO — expiry-date tracking is not enabled on this system, so no expire-first strategy is offered.
Common mistakes
- Setting a location strategy and wondering why it is ignored — a category's Force Removal Strategy overrides it every time.
- Naming locations casually and then trusting Closest Location — the alphabet is the routing.
- Treating the strategy as a physical guarantee — it decides what the system reserves; what the picker actually grabs is still recorded (and correctable) on the operation lines.
Checkpoint
You can explain which physical bar or sheet a picker will be sent to, and why.