Stock control is vital for the success of any restaurant or bar. With careful management of your stock, you can drastically reduce your losses by eliminating wastage, Spoilage and theft. Let’s get back to the basics with these five tips for effective stock management.
Effective Stock Management Tips:
Just-in-time Stock Control Management
It is common for many restaurants to have more food on their shelves than needed. Overstocking often leads to food wastage or stock that never moves. You should evaluate your inventory levels product by product and compare that to your best selling items, then adjust your order levels to what you need to keep up demand until the next delivery comes in and add in a small but reasonable safety factor.
Daily Inventory on Key Items.
Reduce theft, over portioning or other food-use problem with a daily inventory check on key items. Start by identifying your top 10-15 products that make up the bulk of your food cost (Our Point of Sale Solution makes this very easy). At the start of each day, count and record stock levels, add any purchases during the day. At the end of the closing shift, count the remaining inventory and compute the usage for each item by adding the beginning quantity and the purchases, then subtract the ending amount on hand.The result is the amount of each product used. Now, compare that figure with the POS product usage report for each product. A negative discrepancy could indicate possible theft, over portioning or other food-use problem.
Ensure Maximum Usage.
Plan to use any usable trim and byproducts somewhere else on the menu. Soups, garnishes and sauces are perfect for this.
Use Recipe Quick-reference on the Kitchen Line.
While most cooks can memorize the proper method for cooking a given menu item, large menus often have very similar ingredients and portions leading to confusion.Ensure consistency by displaying recipe quick-reference charts at each station – contains a list of the ingredients and portions for each menu item so cooks can quickly verify correct recipe portions.
Establish Daily Prep Level Pars.
Control freshness, waste and spoilage, by knowing the amount of food to prepare for each shift based on anticipated sales. Too much product on hand results in nibbling, waste and spoilage. Too little results in running out of needed supply on the line. By establishing and constantly re-evaluating par levels for all prepped items, you help to reduce excessive waste.
Through effective stock management, you can reduce your losses and not your quality.
