PHARMA & LIFE SCIENCES
The wrong lot can't ship. Not once.
Nothing leaves on the wrong lot or past its date. Stock on QA hold stays separate, on the floor as well as in the system. When the floor process doesn't make that automatic, people cover the gap with memory and double checks. Memory has bad days.
We build the floor process that makes lot control dependable. Your QA and validation team stays in charge of compliance.
How lot control slips on the floor
Quarantine is a strip of tape on the floor
Held product sits next to released product, separated by a sign or a habit. One busy afternoon is all it takes for the wrong pallet to move.
FEFO lives in the system, not the pick
The system knows which lot expires first. The picker grabs the one in front. Short-dated stock gets written off in the back of the rack.
Receiving inspection is a bottleneck
Product waits on the dock because nobody is sure what needs inspecting or who releases it.
Counts that don't reconcile by lot
The item total is right but the lot quantities aren't. You find out during a recall check.
WHY IT BREAKS HERE
The rules are strict. The floor process often isn't.
Life sciences companies usually have strong quality systems on paper. The gap is on the floor: locations that don't enforce status, receiving steps that depend on one experienced person, and picking that relies on people reading lot numbers correctly every time.
We work on that gap: physical segregation that matches system status, and pick steps that make the right lot the easy one to grab. We don't validate systems or sign off on compliance. Your QA and validation team stays in charge of that, and we write SOPs in a format they can review and adopt.
Making hold and release visible on the floor
Pharma work centers on status and dates.
- 01Map receiving, inspection, release, storage, picking and shipping by status
- 02Design hold and reject locations that match system status
- 03Build FEFO into the pick process and location layout
- 04Set up cycle counts by lot, not just by item
- 05Draft SOPs in your document format for QA review
- 06Train each role on the floor once QA approves the procedures
Your QA and validation team stays in charge of compliance. We fix the floor process and hand them SOPs to review, not the other way round.
Pharma work is a Flight Check followed by Ground Crew, with every SOP going through your QA team before rollout.
If your system can't hold stock by status or enforce FEFO at the pick, Flight Plan runs the selection. Validation stays with your team and the vendor.
How an engagement runs →Common questions
Are you a GxP or compliance consultant?
No. We're warehouse and inventory consultants. We fix the physical process and draft SOPs for your QA team to review. Compliance decisions and system validation stay with them.
Can you write SOPs in our document control format?
Yes. Send us your template and we'll draft in it, so QA reviews content instead of reformatting.
Do you work with medical device and nutraceutical companies too?
Yes. The specific rules differ, but lot control, expiry and quarantine work the same way on the floor.
Make the right lot the easy one to pick.
Thirty minutes on the phone. Tell us how product moves through your statuses and we'll tell you where we'd start.
Cody answers these himself.