3 Vital Processes in Restaurant Inventory Management

When you set up your own restaurant, you must start preparing the strategy, well-organized management, and adequate inventory so that your restaurant can meet all the targeted goals. The obvious way to attract customers is probably to serve appetizing dishes at a reasonable price.

However, imagine if your restaurant is facing a financial problem. This situation requires you to carefully find a clever scheme to maintain the price without degrading the quality of your dishes.

Let’s say this problem is that the price of the ingredients starts to rocket. The best approach to tackle this issue is to monitor and regulate the supply chain management well. It will depend on how you manage the inventory.

Generally, restaurant inventory management includes several activities. It covers analyzing the inventory supply, utilizing it, and recording the supply that comes in and out.

Effective and routine inventory management is an essential element in ensuring the health of your restaurant’s supply chain. It will eventually influence your financial well-being.

This article will give you an insight into 3 vital processes you should not miss in restaurant inventory management.

1. Planning

Planning is a process that forecasts demand and the number of orders. This forecast is the estimated amount of the required inventory, which should be in accordance with the restaurant’s standard recipe.

This process is substantial because it predicts how long the existing inventory will last and determines when to acquire fresh inventory. With planning, restaurants can reduce waste and avoid over- or under-inventory.

Other than that, planning for inventory management should consider other types of predictions, such as economic forecasts to anticipate inflation, money supply, and other business cycle indicators.

You might need to consider technological forecasts to update the financial plan if the restaurant applies new technology relating to inventory management.

2. Execution

Execution is a process that covers several activities of come-in and come-out inventory calculation. The process itself encompasses five main activities.

The first is an order request. It is a process where inventory staff informs the customer of the order and waits until the supplier confirms it. Then, the purchasing system is processed.

It needs coordination with the financial department. When it arrives, it goes to the storing process, depending on the inventory type. As the customer’s order is out, the inventory goes into the preparation process.

There are three types of inventory. Each type requires a complex execution process and different treatment. The fresh inventory procurement requires daily updates because the perishable risk is high. This kind of inventory will get into the preparation process multiple times a day and must be recorded in detail.

Meanwhile, inventory staff needs to update the frozen inventory procurement once a week because this type of inventory lasts longer. However, if the storage does not get enough attention, this type of inventory will be on the verge of being wasted. The same treatment applies to dry inventory.

Therefore, every inventory that comes in and out in a month will be abundant. This requires accurate data recording from inventory staff. The execution process will depend heavily on thorough data input and screening. Otherwise, over- or under-inventory will happen instead.

3. Control

This process is where you must ensure that all inventory comes in and comes out according to the plan. So, technical mistakes such as reckless inventory staff ordering or releasing inventory without awareness or data input would cause huge trouble.

To avoid those risks, two controlling processes must perform simultaneously with the other executing processes. The first is verifying delivering activity during receiving the delivery. This process controls the stock from the supplier and checks the quantity and condition of the ordered inventory.

It will minimize errors such as delivering the wrong order from the supplier. If there is any, the manager must quickly communicate with the inventory staff to clear the problem.

The second is the inventory checking process which aims to control the inventory that comes from the storage. This process should synchronize with the inventory that goes into the preparatory process. The inventory staff records and matches the remaining inventory in the storage. It ensures that no inventory is out without purpose.

Conclusion

These three inventory processes are critical to the restaurant’s financial stability. Everything you do must be done with the utmost precision. Restaurant managers should use software that can calculate inventory data and integrate it with other functions, such as Inventory Management Software, to ensure accurate data.

You will also benefit from ERP software in inventory management, which will become more efficient because the inputted data will be saved and analyzed for restaurant inventory management purposes.

Monitor the entire inventory management process, from planning to execution and control, to secure restaurant finances without jeopardizing the quality and price of your restaurant’s dishes.