Is your pharmacy looking for a way to improve organization, increase storage capacity, and reduce costs? Pharmacy FIFO shelving could be the solution you need. This innovative design makes organizing pharmacy shelves easy and saves space, time, and money.
Read on to discover how the FIFO pharmacy shelving design solves the challenges of traditional pharmacy shelving systems and the many ways it benefits pharmacies. You can also check out more of our pharmacy storage solutions here.
This article will discuss:
- The problem with traditional pharmacy RX shelving
- FEFO and FIFO in pharmacy
- How pharmacy FIFO shelving works
- Benefits of pharmacy FIFO shelving
Is your pharmacy looking for a way to improve organization, increase storage capacity, and reduce costs? Pharmacy FIFO shelving could be the solution you need. This innovative design makes organizing pharmacy shelves easy and saves space, time, and money.
Read on to discover how the FIFO pharmacy shelving design solves the challenges of traditional pharmacy shelving systems and the many ways it benefits pharmacies. You can also check out more of our pharmacy storage solutions here.
This article will discuss:
- The problem with traditional pharmacy RX shelving
- FEFO and FIFO in pharmacy
- How pharmacy FIFO shelving works
- Benefits of pharmacy FIFO shelving
The Problem with Traditional Pharmacy Shelving

The more crowded the shelves are, the worse this problem becomes. When the shelves are packed with medication, it becomes time-consuming to locate a needed item and ensure it’s correct. Rotating stock is also challenging, particularly if the shelves can only be loaded from the front. If all the bottles are crowded on a shelf, tracking which stock expires first is challenging, increasing the risk of medication expiring and going to waste.
FEFO and FIFO in Pharmacy

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. In other words, the products that are stored first are retrieved first. FIFO is a standard principle for managing stocks of perishable items. Similarly, FEFO stands for First Expired, First Out. According to this principle, products are ordered by expiration dates, so items that expire soonest are retrieved first.
In a pharmacy application, FIFO and FEFO are generally synonymous, as the medications stored first would typically have the nearest expiration date. However, utilizing FEFO and FIFO in pharmacies requires the right pharmacy storage system that facilitates this organization system. Pharmacy FIFO shelving does just that. Visit our online store to see our pharmacy storage products.
The Problem with Traditional Pharmacy Shelving

The more crowded the shelves are, the worse this problem becomes. When the shelves are packed with medication, it becomes time-consuming to locate a needed item and ensure it’s correct. Rotating stock is also challenging, particularly if the shelves can only be loaded from the front. If all the bottles are crowded on a shelf, tracking which stock expires first is challenging, increasing the risk of medication expiring and going to waste.
FEFO and FIFO in Pharmacy

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. In other words, the products that are stored first are retrieved first. FIFO is a standard principle for managing stocks of perishable items. Similarly, FEFO stands for First Expired, First Out. According to this principle, products are ordered by expiration dates, so items that expire soonest are retrieved first.
In a pharmacy application, FIFO and FEFO are generally synonymous, as the medications stored first would typically have the nearest expiration date. However, utilizing FEFO and FIFO in pharmacies requires the right pharmacy storage system that facilitates this organization system. Pharmacy FIFO shelving does just that. Visit our online store to see our pharmacy storage products.
The Problem with Traditional Pharmacy Shelving

The more crowded the shelves are, the worse this problem becomes. When the shelves are packed with medication, it becomes time-consuming to locate a needed item and ensure it’s correct. Rotating stock is also challenging, particularly if the shelves can only be loaded from the front. If all the bottles are crowded on a shelf, tracking which stock expires first is challenging, increasing the risk of medication expiring and going to waste.
FEFO and FIFO in Pharmacy

FIFO stands for First In, First Out. In other words, the products that are stored first are retrieved first. FIFO is a standard principle for managing stocks of perishable items. Similarly, FEFO stands for First Expired, First Out. According to this principle, products are ordered by expiration dates, so items that expire soonest are retrieved first.
In a pharmacy application, FIFO and FEFO are generally synonymous, as the medications stored first would typically have the nearest expiration date. However, utilizing FEFO and FIFO in pharmacies requires the right pharmacy storage system that facilitates this organization system. Pharmacy FIFO shelving does just that. Visit our online store to see our pharmacy storage products.
How Pharmacy FIFO Shelving Works

The adjustable dividers make organizing pharmacy shelves much more efficient. The dividers create separate slots so medications no longer get jumbled up on a crowded shelf together. You can place the dividers as needed to accommodate bottles and boxes of various sizes while neatly fitting as many medications as possible across a given shelf. Acrylic bin fronts keep stored products on the pull-out shelves while maintaining visibility, and you can label the bin fronts for improved organization and accuracy.
Benefits of Pharmacy FIFO Shelving
Increased Storage Capacity
The efficient design of FIFO pharmacy shelving maximizes a pharmacy’s storage capacity and reduces costs associated with storage space. Rather than crowding bottles together on open shelves or leaving wasted space to keep products separated, the modern pharmacy shelving’s divider systems ensure that as many products as possible can fit along a shelf while remaining organized and easy to access.
One hospital pharmacy relied on the FIFO shelving system to solve the problem of insufficient storage space. The pharmacy was moving into a new location, but its existing shelving would not fit into the new space. A custom-designed high-density FIFO shelving system increased the pharmacy’s storage capacity, allowing them to increase their bulk storage supply in the new space, along with the other benefits discussed below.
Reduced Waste
Because the modern pharmacy shelves promote FIFO inventory management, they reduce the unnecessary waste of expired medication. The gravity-fed shelves ensure that products with the nearest expiration dates are at the front of the shelf to be picked first. This design allows a pharmacy to follow the FIFO principle and eliminate the wasted cost of expired prescriptions with no extra effort on the part of the staff.
Increased Efficiency
Pharmacy FIFO shelving allows pharmacy personnel to stock shelves and fill prescriptions more efficiently with less time and effort. Loading the shelves is easier than ever and can be done from the front or back of the shelving units.
From the front, the shelves slide out so that staff can easily place new items behind older ones in keeping with the FIFO system. The acrylic bin fronts afford maximum visibility, and labels make it easier to locate the correct storage location. Staff can also load shelves from the back, and the gravity flow design ensures that products slide to the front in the order they were loaded for convenient retrieval.
Improved Organization

Flexibility
Lastly, modern pharmacy shelving is a versatile solution that offers pharmacies unparalleled flexibility. To start, staff can adjust the dividers to house bottles and boxes of different sizes, adjusting the shelving arrangement to accommodate their specific supply at any given time efficiently.
Pharmacy FIFO shelving can also be custom-designed to meet your unique requirements. For example, the hospital pharmacy discussed earlier implemented a high-density version of the FIFO shelving system to maximize its limited storage capacity. Pharmacy FIFO shelving can work for you whatever your pharmacy storage needs.
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Contact Us for Pharmacy FIFO Shelving
Southwest Solutions Group® provides design and installation services for FIFO pharmacy shelving. We will also provide a free consultation to determine your exact needs and specifications before the design process begins. To learn more or to speak with a specialist, call us at 1-800-803-1083 or send us a message today.
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“Southwest Solutions Group assisted us in the setup of equipment and services for our offsite medical record warehouse housing over one million charts. They have moved over 330,000 records from the main hospital to the medical record warehouse in a weekend time period, and converted thousands of charts for us. They have provided us a new chart tracking system, labeling system, and file conversion services over a multi-month process. Their IT group was able to modify our existing records management software to “talk” to our main software program so we could print color coded labels for our medical record charts. In addition, they have provided many other services to Parkland hospital including file shelving, hospital storage equipment needs, and software support. Southwest Solutions Group does exceptional work.”

“Our experience with Southwest Solutions Group could not have been better. Matt (sales rep) was very knowledgeable and attentive to our needs. Our shelving project required many changes and revisions and Matt never flinched when thrown a challenge. Many thanks to the installation crew for putting in a twelve hour day to complete our project on time. We give a 100% satisfaction rating to Matt and the Southwest Solutions Group team.”

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