4 Best Practices For Restaurant Inventory Management

Running a restaurant is not smooth sailing. It takes an extensive amount of business acumen and a remarkable amount of work to run a successful restaurant.

Finding and retaining quality staff is just one aspect of building a successful restaurant. The other aspect is to provide exceptional service to your guests. It’s no secret that serving delicious food is the key to creating a memorable experience in your guests’ minds, compelling them to return.

To deliver quality food consistently, inventory management is important. Inventory encompasses all the ingredients and raw materials that are needed to prepare the dishes. Keeping track of all that you have in the pantry or the walk-in freezer will ensure efficient kitchen operations. Besides minimizing wastage, inventory management facilitates timely replenishment.

Below, we’ve discussed some of the best practices for restaurant inventory management:

#1 Organize Your Food Storage

The secret to staying on top of the inventory? Follow an accurate and sustainable organization system, as that will streamline inventory management. Every item or raw material in your pantry or walk-in freezer must have a designated space. That way, your staff won’t have trouble finding the items they’re seeking.

Don’t forget to add clear, descriptive labels on each shelf and item. With proper labels, employees will be able to locate products with ease. Plus, they will be able to identify products that are low in stock. Besides optimizing inventory management, this will prevent overstocking and reduce stockouts.

You can also create a spreadsheet or a map of your stock, as that will give you an idea of where every ingredient is kept.

#2 Take Inventory Often

Failing to monitor your inventory is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

Regularly assessing and recording the quantity of ingredients in your pantry can help you manage supply chains more efficiently. As well as this, consider setting up automatic deliveries of wholesale goods, perhaps like your coffee shipment from https://ironandfire.co.uk/wholesale/. This ensures you always maintain the same baseline level of stock, and you will only have to make extra purchases when required in busy periods.

Keeping tabs on your restaurant’s inventory also lets you know which items have expired. This will save you from making last-minute trips to the local supermarket to buy them at retail prices when you could have bought them at wholesale prices.

Therefore, setting up a regular schedule for counting inventory is recommended. Many restaurants opt for weekly inventory checks, whereas others prefer checking them daily.

While weekly checks are best, some items may require regular checks. Perishable items like seafood and meat need to be checked daily. They won’t be of any use if you don’t use them within a few days of stocking. Non-perishable items don’t require regular checking, so once a week will suffice.

High-cost inventories must also be checked daily to discourage stealing. Key ingredients of best-seller dishes must always be in stock, so check them daily.

#3 Invest in Inventory Management Software

Though an important part of running a restaurant, inventory management is time-consuming. Why not simplify the task by investing in inventory management software?

Inventory management software helps restaurants track, manage, and control their inventory efficiently. As it provides real-time visibility into stock levels, it allows restaurateurs to make informed decisions promptly.

Not only that, but real-time data also helps restaurants respond to changes in demand. This prevents overstock or understock situations.

As per CheddrSuite, a significant upside of inventory management software is that it automates an array of inventory-related tasks. You can automate the process of purchasing by creating purchase orders on the basis of preset order points and forecasted demand.

Many inventory management solutions offer cloud-based access. We advise you to go for such an inventory management app, as that will let you and your managers access software data remotely.

You can access the data via any device, be it smartphones, tablets, or computers. Investing in such software will be beneficial, as you can make informed decisions even when away from the pantry.

The inventory management app also helps restaurateurs track deliveries, streamline vendor management, and ensure timely replenishment of supplies and ingredients.

If you are looking for even more robust management tools, you might also rely on CMMS Software Services. They can further enhance your inventory control and overall operations.

Robust inventory management solutions are cost-saving in the sense that they help restaurateurs optimize ingredient ordering, identify areas of waste, and reduce food costs.

#4 Follow the FIFO Strategy

Several restaurants follow the FIFO (first in, first out) strategy. We advise you to also follow the same. Quite simply, FIFO entails storing and rotating your inventory such that none of your supplies expire or go bad.

In the FIFO strategy, items or ingredients that are purchased first are moved to the front. That way, the chef uses them before the freshly bought ingredients or items. As such, the FIFO strategy helps minimize food wastage.

Wrapping Up

Though tedious, inventory management is critical to running a successful restaurant.

You can choose to manage your restaurant’s inventory manually. However, know that managing inventory manually means you will have to check them more often than not.

On the other hand, you can streamline inventory management by integrating an inventory management application into your day-to-day operations. With robust inventory management software, you can keep track of your inventory in real-time. It will also help you address the issue of overstocking and stockouts.

Just make sure to check the reviews of the software company whose inventory management solution you’re planning to invest in. Go ahead if positive reviews outweigh the negative ones.