Managing Inventory Expiration Can Cost You, Here’s How to Make it Easy

Why Expiration Management Matters More Than Ever for Medical Device Manufacturers

For medical device manufacturers, expiry dates aren’t just a compliance detail—they’re a financial, operational, and patient-safety priority. Every unit that expires in the warehouse, the field, or on consignment represents more than wasted product. It’s lost revenue, reduced trust with providers, and increased regulatory risk.

Despite the high stakes, many companies still struggle with effective expiry management. Spreadsheets, siloed systems, and manual processes create blind spots, making it difficult to know where products are, how soon they’ll expire, or whether they’re being rotated efficiently. In a complex, high-value supply chain like medtech, these gaps can quickly compound into major losses.

The True Cost of Expiration in the Medical Device Industry

When expiration management is neglected, the costs add up in several ways:

• Direct product waste – Devices that expire before being used cannot be sold, leading to direct revenue loss.
• Logistical costs – Expired products must be removed, replaced, and sometimes destroyed, adding labor and handling expenses.
• Opportunity costs – Inventory tied up in expired or soon-to-expire products reduces working capital and slows new product introduction.
• Regulatory risks – Using expired inventory in a surgical case risks compliance violations and patient harm, with potentially severe legal consequences.
• Reputation damage – Hospitals and surgeons expect manufacturers to deliver reliable products. Failing to manage expirations can erode trust.

In short, poor management of expiring inventory puts both the business and the patients they serve at risk.

Why Expiration Is Hard to Manage

Medical device manufacturers face unique challenges that make managing expiring inventory especially complex:

1. Field inventory – High-value devices often sit in sales reps’ trunks, hospital consignment shelves, or loaner trays. Without visibility into these locations, it’s easy for products to age unnoticed.
2. Decentralized systems – When purchase orders, inventory tracking, and sales reporting are spread across different tools, expirations slip through the cracks.
3. Manual workflows – Spreadsheets and email-driven communication leave room for errors and create lags in expiry reporting.
4. Rapid product movement – Devices may move from warehouse to distributor to hospital within days. Without a connected system, expiring inventory is nearly impossible to track accurately across the chain.

Strategies to Improve Expiration Management

The good news is that medical device manufacturers can take practical steps to better manage this risk with targeted strategies and integrated inventory operations tools:

1. Centralize Inventory Data

A unified inventory management platform is essential. Having all product data—lots, serials, and expiration dates—in one system creates a single source of truth that eliminates blind spots.

2. Use Real-Time Tracking

Tracking inventory at the lot or UDI level allows you to see expiring and soon-to-expire inventory across all locations: warehouse, distributors, and field inventory. This visibility helps companies move products proactively before they expire.

3. Automate Alerts and Notifications

Instead of manually checking spreadsheets, implement automated alerts that flag soon-to-expire inventory. Notifications give teams time to redeploy products, rotate stock, or prioritize sales in high-demand regions.

4. Optimize Consignment Practices

Consignment can help ensure product availability, but it often leads to stagnant inventory. By regularly auditing consigned stock and pulling back slow-moving products, manufacturers can reduce expiration risk.

5. Tie Expiration Management to Forecasting

Integrating expiry data with demand forecasting ensures the right balance of supply and demand. Products that are nearing their expiry date can be prioritized in case coverage and sales activity, while new builds are timed appropriately to avoid overproduction.

The Role of Technology in Expiration Management

Traditional methods of managing this simply aren’t enough. Today’s medical device industry requires modern, cloud-based solutions that combine case management, field inventory tracking, and expiration monitoring.

A well-designed platform can:

• Track expirations automatically at the lot level.
• Provide visibility into stock across warehouses, distributors, and consignment locations.
• Generate automated alerts for upcoming expiring inventory.
• Support redeployment workflows to move products from low-demand to high-demand territories.
• Document expiration management actions for audits and compliance.

By embedding expiring inventory tracking into the broader inventory process, manufacturers gain control and reduce the risk of costly waste.

Expiration as a Strategic Lever

Managing expiring inventory isn’t just about avoiding waste—it’s about creating competitive advantage. Manufacturers who excel at managing expiring inventory can:

• Protect margins by reducing write-offs.
• Improve customer trust by ensuring providers always receive fresh, compliant inventory.
• Strengthen compliance with FDA and global regulatory requirements.
• Increase efficiency by aligning production with true demand and expiration trends.

Expirations management, once treated as a back-office detail, is now a front-line strategy for resilience in the face of supply chain pressures.

How ConnectSx Helps Manufacturers Manage Expiring Inventory

ConnectSx puts expiration management at the heart of inventory visibility. By integrating purchase orders, field inventory, and case scheduling into one cloud-based platform, ConnectSx ensures that expiry data is always accurate and accessible. Automated alerts notify teams of upcoming expirations, while real-time visibility makes it easy to redeploy underutilized stock before it goes to waste.

With ConnectSx, medical device manufacturers can move from reactive to proactive management of expiring inventory—reducing waste, improving compliance, and strengthening relationships with providers.

If your organization is struggling to control expirations risk, it’s time to modernize your approach. ConnectSx can help you turn expiration management from a liability into a source of efficiency and competitive strength.

To learn more about how much you can save by improving your operation, check out our free ROI calculator.