Use Case: Workflows
Proactive Inventory Control - Identify and Remove Expiring Materials
Summary
Stop guessing and start protecting your product quality. Leverage ItemPath Workflows to automatically scan for inventory approaching or passing its expiration date, which then instantly triggers a high-priority Pick order. This ensures expiring stock is proactively pulled from the VLM, eliminating compliance risks and safeguarding product integrity.
Persona
Inventory Manager, Quality Control Specialist
Challenge
Inventory management relies on time-consuming, manual checks OR fixed, batch-based reports to monitor expiration dates. This creates significant regulatory risks.
Feature and Solution
In high-stakes, regulated environments (like food, pharma, and chemical), letting expired or soon-to-expire stock remain available is a massive liability. Manual processes are slow, error-prone, and expose businesses to compliance risks.
Example:
An internal quality policy requires removing all consumables exactly 30 days before their self-life ends.
The Inventory Manager configures a report of Expiring Materials, with filters to show any material where the expiry date is in the next 30 days.
An automatic Order Builder integration is configured to pick materials identified in this report.
A Workflow is then set to run every morning at 7:00am and check to see if the Expiring Materials report has 1 or more rows. If the criteria is met, the Workflow then triggers the Order Builder integration and a high-priority pick order is created.
Warehouse staff receive the order, with all expiring materials identified to be picked.
Expiring materials are removed from stock and disposed of appropriately.
Key Results and Benefits
ItemPath Workflows act as your ultimate quality control automation layer, turning compliance data into proactive action. This solution dramatically accelerates inventory rotation, providing continuous adherence to the First-Expired, First-Out principle, and eliminating the financial and regulatory headache of accidentally selling expired materials.
Top Capabilities
- Scheduled Report Triggering: Automatically initiates workflow actions on a customizable schedule (daily, hourly, etc) based on the outcome of a targeted report.
- Order Builder Integration: Seamlessly generates Pick, Put, or Count orders in Power Pick, using the data identified by the triggering report.
- Conditional Execution: Ensures the action is only activated when required – when the report confirms materials have met the expiration criteria – removing the need for human intervention.
Operational Benefits
- Mitigates Compliance Risk: Leverages Power Pick data to ensure expired or expiring materials are automatically identified and removed before they can be accidentally picked or shipped.
- FEFO Adherence: Automated removal supports better stock rotation, preventing older materials from being overlooked.
- Frees Up Labour: Reclaims hours spent by staff on slow, error-prone manual checks, allowing them to focus on high-value tasks.
Additional Resources
To learn more about connecting and leveraging Workflows with Reports and Order Builder, here are some helpful resources.
Master Your Triggers
Learn how to turn system events into automated actions. This guide covers the various types of triggers available—from schedule-based to event-driven—allowing you to build a truly responsive warehouse.
Connect Your Logic
See how Workflows and Order Builder work together to drive advanced automation. This guide walks through creating a seamless bridge between system data and automated order generation for high-level integration.
