Customer Shelf-Life Enforcement – User Guide

Background / Problem Statement

Certain customers require product to have a minimum remaining shelf life at the time of shipment or delivery. Without enforcing these requirements during lot selection and picking, organizations risk:

• Shipping product that does not meet customer shelf-life agreements

• Chargebacks, rejections, and loss of customer trust

• Manual lot checks that slow down order fulfillment

This enhancement ensures that only compliant lots are visible, selectable, and suggested throughout the sales and warehouse processes.

Solution Overview

The Customer Shelf-Life Enforcement feature enhances lot selection logic across Sales Orders, Warehouse Shipments, and Picks to strictly adhere to customer-specific shelf-life requirements.

The solution provides:

• Customer- and ship-to–specific shelf-life rules

• Item, category, posting group, or global (all items) level control

• Automated filtering of lots during tracking and picking

• Validation when users manually enter lot numbers

• FEFO-aware lot suggestions that respect customer shelf-life requirements

Customer Shelf-Life Requirement Setup

Customer Shelf-Life Requirement Table

A new table and page Customer Shelf-Life Requirement is introduced and is linked directly to the Customer Card.

Fields

• Customer No.

  • Lookup to Customer table

  • Automatically populated when created from the Customer Card

• Ship-to Code

  • Lookup to Customer Ship-to Address

  • Optional; when blank, applies to all ship-to locations

• Type (Option Field)

  • Item

  • Item Category

  • Inventory Posting Group

  • All Items

• No.

  • Lookup depends on the selected Type

  • Disabled when Type = All Items

• Shelf Life Requirement

  • Date formula (e.g., 3D, 1W, 1M)

  • Represents the minimum remaining shelf life required

Customer Card Configuration

A new field is added to the Customer Card:

Shelf Life Requirement Based On (Option Field)

• None

• Shipment Date

• Planned Delivery Date

• Planned Shipment Date

• Requested Delivery Date

This field determines the base date used when evaluating shelf-life compliance.

If this field is set to None, shelf-life enforcement is disabled for the customer.

Shelf-Life Requirement Resolution Logic

When multiple shelf-life records exist, the system always applies the most specific rule using the following priority order:

1. Item

2. Inventory Posting Group

3. Item Category

4. All Items

This logic is consistently applied across Sales, Shipment, and Pick processes.

Sales Order & Shipment Lot Tracking Logic

Applicable Pages

• Sales Order – Item Tracking Lines

• Warehouse Shipment – Item Tracking Lines

Processing Logic

When a user opens lot tracking or selects a Lot No.:

1. The system checks the Sell-to Customer.

2. If Shelf Life Requirement Based On is not None:

   • The system looks up Customer No. and Ship-to Code (if present) in the Customer Shelf-Life Requirement table.

   • The applicable shelf-life rule is resolved using the priority order.

3. The system determines the base date from the customer setup.

4. Only lots where:

   Expiration Date > (Base Date + Shelf Life Requirement)

   are displayed and selectable.

Manual Lot Entry Validation

If a user manually enters a Lot No.:

• The same validation logic is applied

• If the lot does not meet the requirement, the system errors and prevents entry

Pick Logic – FEFO Off

Processing Logic

When selecting lots on a Pick Line with FEFO turned off:

1. The system retrieves the Destination No. to determine the Customer.

2. If the customer’s Shelf Life Requirement Based On is not None:

   • The system uses the Source No. to locate the Sales Order and Ship-to Code.

   • Customer Shelf-Life Requirement is resolved using the standard priority logic.

3. The base date is retrieved from the Shipment Line.

4. Only lots where:

   Expiration Date > (Shipment Date + Shelf Life Requirement)

   are shown and allowed.

Manual Lot Entry Validation

If a user manually enters a Lot No. on the pick:

• Shelf-life validation is executed

• Non-compliant lots are rejected with an error

Pick Logic – FEFO On

Lot Suggestion Behavior

When FEFO is enabled:

1. During pick creation, the system evaluates the Warehouse Shipment Lines.

2. Customer and ship-to shelf-life requirements are resolved using standard logic.

3. The system builds a list of eligible lots only (within shelf-life range).

4. From the eligible list, the system selects:

   • The oldest expiration date lot (FEFO)

   • While preserving existing quantity-available logic

Result

• FEFO behavior is preserved

• Only customer-compliant lots are suggested

• No picks are created using non-compliant inventory

Business Impact

By enforcing customer shelf-life requirements, organizations can:

• Ensure customer compliance automatically

• Reduce shipment rejections and chargebacks

• Eliminate manual lot verification

• Maintain FEFO efficiency without risk

• Improve auditability and customer trust