Managing restaurant inventory is an art and science, a mix of projections and predictions. If you keep too much inventory, you risk spoilage, theft, cash-flow problems and serving food that’s not fresh or runs past its expiration date. If you don’t order enough food and supplies, you run out of menu items and spend more money buying supplies at retail prices. Food costs run higher than most other restaurant expenses, and proper management of inventory helps to limit losses, improve kitchen speed and reduce the time needed to reorder stock.
Accurate inventory records make taking inventory and ordering supplies more efficient so that restaurant staffs become free for other duties. A good system or inventory app allows dishwashers or support staff to take inventories daily. Taking the time to organize storerooms, freezers and walk-in coolers improves production speed and allows lower-level workers to handle simple counting tasks. Point-of-sale systems and inventory-management software help to make inventory tasks more efficient, identify waste and fraud and organize inventory more efficiently.
Information technology has advanced rapidly, and software programs help to organize, track, prioritize and reorder stock efficiently. Modern IT software systems manage inventory, facilitate the production process, save time and increase profitability. From an owner’s viewpoint, once you set your system, it runs like a clock. Everything gets counted when it’s supposed to be counted and ordered when needed.
Your Inventory system should include FIFO methods help to optimize food usage. FIFO stands for first in, first out, and the method prevents neglectful spoilage. Strong inventory systems serve as deterrents to theft because employees understand that all the stock is carefully managed and catalogued. Inventory tracking allows managers to identify excessive waste during shifts, measure food-cost initiatives for success and prevent both BOH and FOH from running out of staples.
Managers can offer incentives and rewards to their staffs for meeting production goals, reducing waste and portioning food properly. Restaurants that take an informal attitude to portioning issues lose profits when they allow kitchens and servers to use their discretion to portion food. Inventory management can help to identify exactly where the stock is going so that managers can target the areas for policy changes or disciplinary actions.
Tight inventories help to reduce spoilage and waste because they force managers and staffs to use ingredients more efficiently. The staff make fewer errors when they understand they have limited resources. Front-of-the-house service also benefits from strong inventory-control systems for beverages, bread, salads, condiments, desserts and supplies.
Obviously, you’ll take inventory before ordering supplies, but that doesn’t mean that you’ve got to wait until you place an order. More periodic counts are often justified, even daily. Daily counts enable you to track your employees with better precision. The point is to set up a system (times and responsibilities) and stick with it.
The true cost of food depends on portion control, spoilage, waste and theft. Analyzing these factors often proves complicated for managers and owners, but strong inventory techniques, IT software and transparent inventory policies help to automate the process. Many managers fail to calculate the cost of food accurately so that the menu prices become too cheap or too expensive, based on food costs. Your inventory system can interact with your costing software to update the cost of each item on your menu, based on the latest food costs.
Remember that owners and managers can’t set systems and forget them. Some human input is always necessary. Inventory figures might credit spoiled, damaged or outdated products. Glitches in software are always possibilities, so use control systems as guides and tools. They’re never intended to replace human supervision.
The savings generated from restaurant inventory-control systems become pure profit for restaurant owners, so taking the time to organize your inventory is worth the effort. Accurate inventory improves customer service, strengthens employee morale and generates greater restaurant profits.