Inventory System for a Food Manufacturer
Real-time inventory management with batch tracking, expiry alerts, supplier integration and production planning. Replaced spreadsheet tracking and prevented costly stock write-offs.
Food manufacturer — sauces, condiments and ready-made products
A Perth food manufacturer producing 120+ SKUs of sauces, condiments and ready-made products. Raw materials came from 40+ suppliers. Products were distributed to supermarkets, restaurants and food service customers across WA.
Inventory was tracked with spreadsheets. Ten separate spreadsheets covered raw materials, packaging, work-in-progress and finished goods. Updates happened at the end of each shift. The operations manager spent 2 hours daily reconciling numbers across sheets.
What needed to change
Expiry-related waste was expensive. With perishable ingredients and finished products, stock rotation was critical. But spreadsheets did not flag approaching expiry dates. The company wrote off $8,000–$12,000 of expired stock per month — raw materials and finished goods.
Stock accuracy was unreliable. Spreadsheets were often 2–3 shifts behind. Production teams started runs only to discover key ingredients were short. This caused production delays, emergency supplier orders (at premium pricing) and missed delivery commitments.
No batch traceability. Food safety regulations required batch tracking from raw material to finished product. In a spreadsheet environment, tracing a specific batch through production was a multi-hour exercise — critical time during a recall scenario.
What we built
A real-time inventory management system with batch tracking, FEFO rotation, expiry alerts, barcode scanning, supplier integration and production planning — built specifically for food manufacturing.
Real-Time Stock Tracking
Barcode-scanned inventory movements — receiving, production allocation, finished goods and dispatch. Stock levels update in real time across all categories.
Batch & Expiry Management
Every item tracked by batch number and expiry date. FEFO (First Expiry, First Out) rules enforce stock rotation. Automated alerts at 30, 14 and 7 days before expiry.
Supplier Integration
Automated reorder triggers based on minimum stock levels and production schedules. Purchase orders generated and sent to suppliers. Receiving matches against POs with barcode scanning.
Production Planning
Production scheduler checks ingredient availability before confirming runs. Allocates materials by batch. Generates pick lists for the warehouse team.
How it works
Raw materials received
Warehouse scans incoming goods. System matches to purchase order, records batch number, expiry date and quantity. Stock levels update immediately.
Production run planned
Production scheduler creates a run. System checks ingredient availability by batch and expiry. Allocates stock using FEFO rules. Generates pick list for the warehouse.
Materials picked and issued
Warehouse picks materials using the generated list. Each item scanned out of raw materials stock and into work-in-progress. Batch traceability maintained through the chain.
Finished goods received
Completed products scanned into finished goods with a new batch number linked to the ingredient batches. Labels generated with batch and expiry information.
Orders dispatched
Customer orders picked using FEFO rules. Dispatch scanned against the order. Delivery note generated with batch information for traceability.
Measurable outcomes
We used to throw away thousands of dollars in expired stock every month because we could not see what was approaching expiry. Now the system tells us 30 days out, and production planning uses oldest stock first. The system paid for itself in 3 months.
How we delivered it
Process Mapping
2 weeksDocumented every inventory movement from receiving to dispatch. Mapped the spreadsheet system to understand current data flows. Observed production runs to understand material allocation and waste points.
Core Build
5 weeksBuilt the inventory management system with real-time stock tracking, batch management, expiry rules and barcode scanning. Integrated with existing barcode hardware.
Integration & Automation
2 weeksConnected supplier ordering, production planning and Xero for financial inventory valuation. Set up automated reorder triggers and expiry alert notifications.
Migration & Launch
2 weeksFull stocktake to baseline the system. Migrated open purchase orders and current batch records. Launched with parallel running for 2 weeks to validate accuracy.
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