Good inventory management is essential to a restaurant's success. That's because inventory is directly connected to several other fronts of the operation and can affect process efficiency, operating costs and customer satisfaction.
Since this is a complex process, it's common to make mistakes and end up hurting the business. If you want to know why inventory management matters in restaurants and find out the main mistakes to avoid, keep reading this article.
Inventory Control for Restaurants
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Why does inventory management matter for restaurants?
Restaurants face a big challenge in controle de estoque, since many supplies are perishable and usage can vary a lot depending on how busy the restaurant is and the orders customers place.
That's why you need well-defined processes, the right technology and a trained team to keep inventory always up to date and well organized. This is extremely important for an efficient operation and a profitable business.
With good inventory management, you can:
- Reduce food waste, making the most of every ingredient;
- Control costs and get a better profit margin;
- Optimize purchasing, avoiding overstock or shortages of essential items;
- Ensure food quality and safety;
- Gain more operational efficiency, speeding up everything from purchasing to production;
- Maintain customer satisfaction, serving quality dishes with no menu items out of stock.
So, to succeed, inventory management has to be a priority in your restaurant. Check out the main mistakes and tips to avoid them below.
9 common mistakes in restaurant inventory management
Placing orders, receiving suppliers, labeling supplies, storing them properly, recording what comes in and goes out, making sure every ingredient you need is available.
Inventory management in a restaurant involves a whole series of activities, which is why mistakes are common. Find out the main ones below.
1 – Not creating recipe cards
The Recipe cards are documents that show, among other information, the ingredients used in each recipe.
They are a reference for calculating more precisely how much of each supply is needed for production, as well as for recording inventory withdrawals exactly. So they are essential for inventory control.
2 – Not taking inventory counts
O inventory count is a survey of all the supplies in your restaurant. This count should be done regularly (every day or once a week, for example) to check inventory movements and run analyses.
With that, you can identify which products move the most and the least, which have the highest and lowest profit margins, and what generates the most waste. This is very important for making continuous improvements and optimizing management.
3 – Over- or under-purchasing
If you don't know exactly how much of each supply you need to meet your customers' demand, you'll probably get your purchasing wrong. To prevent that, you need to know the minimum and maximum inventory for each supply.
Besides being an unnecessary investment that can hit your cash flow, over-purchasing also creates waste and losses.
If you buy too few ingredients, you won't be able to fill orders and your customers will leave unhappy.
4 – Letting items sit idle in inventory
When inventory management isn't efficient, it's common for many items to sit idle in inventory. That hurts the restaurant, because the money invested in those supplies isn't generating a return and, if they sit too long, they can pass their expiration date.
To avoid losses, you need to identify which products are sitting idle and create strategies to move them. For example: run a promotion pairing an item that's stuck in inventory with a popular one that usually sells well.
Leia também: Inventory turnover: what it is, how to calculate and manage it
5 – Lack of organization
Classifying products, labeling them correctly, including the necessary information (expiration date, supplier, receiving date, among others), storing them in the right place. Good inventory organization is very important for efficient management, because it makes every process easier.
In a disorganized inventory, it's harder to find supplies, count them, track expiration dates, know what's missing and so on. Your team wastes more time on tasks and there's more waste and loss.
6 – Improper storage
Food stored improperly loses quality and spoils faster. That's why it's crucial to have the right spaces for the different types of supplies, with special attention to frozen and chilled items.
Besides having the right space, keeping the inventory area clean and hygienic is also extremely important to ensure food safety and stay compliant with regulations.
7 – Manual records
Records of inventory ins and outs are essential for control. When done by hand, they're prone to errors and oversights. That ends up causing inconsistent information and hurting management.
For reliable data and greater efficiency, we recommend using an inventory control system. Ele faz os registros automaticamente, reduzindo os erros drasticamente e tornando os processos muito mais ágeis.
8 – Forgetting about rotation
A classic mistake is using ingredients that have just arrived before the ones that have been there longer. This happens because of a failure in organization.
To ensure rotation and reduce losses, you can adopt the FIFO system (“First In, First Out”), in which new products are always stored below or behind the older ones.
9 – Not forecasting demand
Another common mistake is not forecasting demand and, as a result, not being ready to meet it.
Knowing which menu items are most popular and which days are busiest at your restaurant is essential for good inventory management, ensuring the right supplies are always available.
Get to know EPOC and make your inventory management more efficient
Having an efficient inventory management system is the best way to avoid all the mistakes we listed above. EPOC is a solution for restaurants that optimizes the operation end to end.
With it, inventory control is automated and you get every feature you need to manage things brilliantly, with no hassle: product and recipe card registration, automatic tracking of ins and outs, complete reports and much more.
To see how it works in practice, Schedule a free demonstration now!
