Did you know that the Hilsoft Inventory module was made because of a fine-dining restaurant in Cebu? It was sometime in 2005 when I met the owner of this restaurant (I’m sorry I can’t tell the name). He was very passionate in expressing his pain points in running his business with a commissary in Alabang and 8 branches nationwide with wine distribution. With a team of 200 plus employees, businesses in this industry know exactly these challenges in operating a food business.
Here are the Common Problems in Food or Restaurant Back-End Operations and Some Suggestions on How to Solve It.
1. Staff and Control. Hiring and keeping employees with integrity is one of the common problems. People have needs, and if they have opportunities to steal from you, whether it is a merchandise, money or time, then there’s a big chance that they will grab them. By establishing a strict control process such as accountability forms, regular inventory count and streamlined process flow can significantly minimize pilferage if not eliminate them.
2. Inventory Management. As a guest, we often hear waiters saying the product we are ordering is “out of stock”. It is mainly because the raw materials of the product or menu were not properly maintained. We can minimize this by creating a system that monitors your inventory count real-time. This is the main reason why we implement inventory software systems. The next step is to set up a proper reorder point and reorder quantity. This enables the stock clerk to immediately notify purchasing to replenish stocks depending on the consumption history of that particular item or raw material.
3. Food Costing. It is very worrisome to run a food business if we have no idea of how much is our profit for every menu or product sold. We can solve this by establishing a standard food recipe costing and implementing an integrated POS + Inventory system that automatically shows your gross profit at the end of the day.
4. Cash flow. The more branches or outlets that you set up, the more difficult it is to manage your cash flow. POS & inventory systems only record sales and cash-inflow. How about your outflow? Imagine how beautiful your life will be if you can have a tool that forecasts your cash flow based on historical sales and due dates of your payables. The first step here on top of the POS system is to record billing of suppliers with their due dates. There are robust accounting system’s in the market that can forecast the cash flow for you.
5. Perishable Items. Your restaurant manager calls you on some occasions telling you that 50% of your meat in the freezer is expired. Sounds familiar? It is essential to have a technology that tells you that specific SKUs in your freezers or dry storage are going to expire in 30 days. A sophisticated process with barcoding integration will solve this type of problem.
With these solutions, the restaurant that I was talking about above now manages about 15 outlets and a decrease in inventory and payables of about 80%. Imagine the benefit of putting your cash somewhere else and minimize profit leaks.
I would love to tell you more stories about business cases like this or about another industry. Stay tuned.
If you want to learn more on automating your food operations, Contact Us at 576-3948 for Appointment!
Do you want to receive similar posts in the future?
Please subscribe here :