Workflow

Review dead stock

Measure capital tied up by slow or non-moving SKUs, distinguish strategic stock from obsolete stock and decide whether to stop replenishment.

Reviewed August 9, 2026QiiChain Technical EditorialHow we verify content

Before you start

Measure capital tied up by slow or non-moving SKUs, distinguish strategic stock from obsolete stock and decide whether to stop replenishment. Gather recent demand, current usable stock, open supply and actual supplier lead-time data for the SKUs in scope. Keep the time unit consistent before calculating anything.

Build the working data

Use the relevant QiiChain calculators to turn the raw inputs into a reproducible decision. Record the formula result together with the demand period and lead-time period so a future reviewer can reproduce it.

Check exceptions before rollout

Review edge cases that can break review dead stock: missing leading zeros, duplicate SKU rows, invalid check digits, supplier minimums, unusual lead times, variable-length GS1 fields or print-size constraints. The relevant exceptions depend on the workflow, so do not force every row through one default.

Verify in the real system

Test review dead stock in the destination system before processing the full catalog. For barcodes this means scanning the final print; for inventory it means comparing the trigger with current purchase orders and recent demand; for imports it means reviewing how the platform stores identifiers.

Keep an audit trail

Save the source values, rule used, output file/version and review date. That makes it possible to diagnose a later discrepancy without guessing which spreadsheet, formula or label template created it.

Evidence to keep

Run a small pilot first: one product family, one label size or one replenishment cycle. Record exceptions before scaling the workflow. A pilot exposes field-format, printer, scanner, supplier or import-system constraints while the number of affected SKUs is still manageable.

Where this fits in the product master

The output from review dead stock should have a defined home in the product master. Keep internal SKU data, standardized identifiers, barcode carrier, lot/date attributes and inventory-planning parameters in separate fields. That separation makes review dead stock easier to audit, prevents spreadsheet formatting from changing identifier meaning, and lets labels or replenishment reports be regenerated from the same clean source later.

Operational scenario

If review dead stock affects a marketplace or retailer import, export the destination data again after the first test. Many failures happen after a successful upload because the platform reformats a numeric-looking identifier, removes a leading zero or maps the field into a different identifier type. Round-trip verification catches that problem early.

Downstream hand-off

If review dead stock feeds a GS1 2D workflow, validate the decoded AI/value pairs after rendering. A visually valid QR or DataMatrix symbol is only the carrier; the business value depends on the encoded GTIN, lot, date, serial or Digital Link data being correct.

Technical references

Sources used on this page

QiiChain summarizes source material and applies it to the tool or workflow. The linked source remains authoritative for its own standard or product documentation.