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Do You Know What Restaurant Inventory Control Is?

By Jose L Riesco
Oct 20, 2009
In terms of financial liability, the cost of food is second only to your labor costs when running a restaurant. It is therefore vitally important to ensure that you have complete control over this element, as it goes right to your bottom line.

Each business has its own particular stresses and strains and while all retail establishments carry stocks of some kind, restaurant inventory control is very important in this arena as in this case if you're not careful your goods will perish. Poor management control over the several hundred different types of raw food in stock will soon lead to wastage and wasted money.

While senior management should always delegate for best effect, we should not forget that ultimately they have responsibility for good restaurant inventory control. It is important not to have too many people involved in the chain as this will just lead to waste in one form or another, but remember that portion measurement, food handling and ordering are top of the list.

While a good eatery will stand or fall on the quality of its food and it's important to have all your menu items available at all times, remember that all this food represents a cost until it is prepared and delivered to the client. You need to practice the process of containment and come up with a system to ensure that you are stocking just the right amount, not too little and not too much.

It is unfortunately true, but as human beings we tend to place less value on anything that we have an abundance of. This is true when it comes to restaurant inventory control and your primary goal here should be to ensure that you can train all your workers in the values of portion control. This is also another reason why you should not have to much of any particular item in stock at any time.

By ensuring that you have an optimum level of inventory in your storage room you will automatically address several issues and find that you end up with less theft, less wastage, a lot less spoilage, perfect control of portions and a healthier bank account.

If you are in the habit of doing a full food cost calculation only periodically, such as once per month, try taking an example from the policies and procedures book of the major chain restaurants and do this every week. They put so much emphasis on restaurant inventory control that this no doubt in part contributes to the fact that they are between two and three times more profitable than a typical independent establishment.

In the food and drink industry there are a great deal of pitfalls ahead and experienced industry consultants are available to help advise in all areas, including restaurant inventory control. Remember that this is but one element of a complex multidimensional operation.
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