What Is Good Storage Practice (GSP)?

What GSP covers

• Temperature and environment — storing product in its labelled conditions.
• Cleanliness and order — a suitable, well-maintained storage environment.
• Segregation — separating quarantined, returned and released stock.
• Stock rotation — FEFO to manage expiry.
• Documentation — records that show conditions were maintained.

GSP and GDP

Good Storage Practice focuses on how product is stored; Good Distribution Practice covers the wider handling and distribution around it. In practice a compliant warehouse applies both together — storing correctly and distributing correctly.

GSP at SFIMS

SFIMS applies GSP-aligned storage within its DOH & MOH approved facility — controlled temperature zones, segregation, FEFO rotation and documented conditions — as part of its wider GDP-aligned operation.

Housekeeping, cleaning and pest control

The least glamorous part of GSP is the part inspections notice first, because it is visible within seconds of walking in.

Expect documented cleaning schedules with records rather than an assumption that cleaning happens, materials stored off the floor and away from walls so that both cleaning and inspection are possible, no eating or drinking in storage areas, waste removed rather than accumulated in corners, and pest control on a contracted cycle with inspection reports retained and any activity acted upon.

A facility that is visibly well kept is rarely a facility with poor records, and the reverse is equally reliable. Inspectors know this, which is why the walk round happens before the paperwork.

Handling stock so it survives storage

GSP covers how goods are treated, not only the conditions around them:

• Stacking within limits the packaging can bear, so lower cartons are not crushed.
• Pallets in sound condition, since a broken pallet damages what sits on it.
• Goods kept off the floor and clear of walls, for airflow and inspection.
• Outer packaging retained, because it carries the light and moisture protection.
• Damaged stock removed from the pick face immediately rather than at the next count.
• Spillages cleaned and recorded, particularly where a product could contaminate others.

The findings that recur

Across facilities, GSP findings cluster in the same places: cleaning schedules that exist but are not signed, stock stored directly against an external wall, a pest control contract with no evidence of the reports being read, damaged cartons left in the pick face, temperature monitoring in a convenient position rather than a mapped worst case, and stock on the floor during busy periods because there was nowhere else to put it.

None of these require investment to fix. They require somebody whose job it is to walk the floor weekly and write down what they see — which is what self-inspection means in practice.