rgf12 posted:

Our turbine oil is marked with the purchase information but not the date of delivery. 

So why can't you also add a date?

Drums should be identified with the receipt date when they are received and then put into inventory - to make it easier to pick the FIFO drum inventory should be rotated so that the FIFO drum is the first item to choose - one other possibility would be to place drums in racks so that again it is easy to identify the oldest product drum there

Tagging lubricants for date of receipt is good practice, but you may also want to investigate how to decipher the coding on the drums which may provide information on the date of manufacture as well. Sometimes, lubricants can reside at a local distributor for many months before you receive it at the plant, and often in less than ideal storage conditions. In addition to tagging the drum with date of manufacture and/or date of receipt, consider a color and shape code schema. The color and shape coding can then be used to identify tools and accessories dedicated to a specific lubricant to control cross-contamination. Items such as filter carts, oil transfer containers and the machines or components themselves can all be marked with color and shape codes.