A good understanding of your inventory is essential to success in the restaurant industry.
It’s not glamorous as creating new recipes or attracting new customers, but knowing your stock, how much it costs, and when you’ve sold it (or are no longer able use it) is as important, if you’re looking to build a sustainable and profitable business.
Stock control and inventory management is a simple process: track the cost of goods and food losses, and make sure to serve customers only fresh and high quality food.
But simple doesn’t always mean straightforward.
Why?
There can be some big challenges in optimizing your stock control procedures.
The incorrect data. Stock control is based on accurate stock counts. However, when you rely on manual inputs, they may not be accurate for a variety of reasons. This could include tired staff members, lack of training, or the sheer difficulty of tracking huge quantities of inventory using only a piece of scrap paper.
The second is a lack of knowledge about portions. In order to accurately calculate the cost of products sold, kitchen staff must follow the recipe to the letter. Without the proper training and awareness of why it matters, mistakes can happen.
Third, not managing transfers. Inventory is likely to move between multiple locations if a restaurant has several outlets. This can happen quickly. Keeping track can be a real headache. If you don’t, your stock control can become a mess.
Don’t worry if you recognize any of these mistakes. Each one can be corrected with a few small tweaks. Your stock control will improve.
1. Get your team on board.
Stock control is a collaborative effort. You’ll see from the mistakes listed above that the level of knowledge among colleagues in both the kitchen and the front of house about why inventory control is important for the future can make a big difference. Inventory management should be a part of all staff training. Remind your team about its importance at regular meetings.
2. Get rid of the pen and paper.
It can be difficult for restaurants who have used manual stock control systems without any major problems to see how inventory management software could benefit them. With cloud-based inventory tools you can not only reduce the time spent on manual checks and the human error that comes with it, but also reap all kinds of other benefits that a pen & paper can’t provide.
With an end-to-end view of your inventory, you can, for example, quickly identify weak points when it comes waste, instantly see when a supplier increases prices, and gain actionable insights. Inventory management will no longer be a headache, but an opportunity.
3. Plan ahead to allow time for the integration of new procedures.
It can be a big undertaking to integrate new inventory management software in a business. It may be necessary to enter raw ingredients, calculate portions of different menu items and train staff. But allocating time up front will pay off in the long run. Set aside some time when you implement new stock control procedures to integrate the processes throughout the rest of your business, and to bring everyone up-to-speed. It will pay off over time.
4. Back-of-house FIFO
You’ll need to organize your physical stock so that it is easy to see what you have. This will help you avoid waste. Try the FIFO approach for a tried and tested method. It stands for “First In, first Out”. Simply organize your areas, such as the cooler, freezer, and dry storage area, so that you can use items in order. Consider containers that are designed for FIFO.
5. Consistency is the key to success.
Bad inputs will lead to poor outputs. Stock control is no exception. If you want to get the best out of any inventory management procedures or software, make sure it’s part of your restaurant’s daily, weekly, and hourly routine. Consider assigning certain members of your team the responsibility to enter all new stock into the system. This will ensure that there are no gaps in data.
6. Reduce waste.
Waste is not only bad for the environment, ( we could reduce toxic emissions by up to 8% if everyone stopped wasting food), but also for businesses. Food waste equals lost revenue. It’s important to identify waste and take steps to reduce it as part of an effective stock control plan. Inventory management software is a great tool for this. It will automatically identify the food types where there are likely to be wastes, and pinpoint the reasons behind these losses. It can also suggest ways to reduce this loss. This could be done by introducing more accurate labels on food containers, smaller portion sizes on plates or even tweaking kitchen practices to reduce waste.
7. Use surplus ingredients.
It is inevitable that some waste will occur. Restaurants can get creative when it comes to surplus. They can rethink ingredients, menus, and organization in order to reduce waste. There are many ways to use surplus food other than in the kitchen. From redistributing surplus food to local organizations to using scraps to feed locally grown produce.
Our restaurant management software allows you to automate tasks such as inventory, control food costs and optimize operations in the back of house. It offers advanced insight for strategic decisions and eliminates manual tasks. restaurant stock management can be simplified to increase efficiency, reduce waste and relieve stress.
