Having great inventory management in the Food and beverage industry, like in café is a must. This will be one of the determinants of whether you will have many loyal customers or lose them.
Unfortunately, not all cafe owners know how to manage inventory and food stock well and use the restaurant system. For those who are still confused, here are 10 tips for managing inventory for your café:
Key Takeaways
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Table of Content:
Table of Content
What is Restaurant Inventory Management?
Restaurant inventory management is an activity that considers all the needs of kitchens and restaurants to avoid shortages of raw materials or throwing them away due to excessive stock.
How Do You Manage Stock in a Cafe?
The following are some ways that you can implement to optimize inventory management for restaurant:
1. Classify the stock
There are three ways of classifying your inventory: based on the inventory purpose, storage, and cycles. Foods & drinks, spices, and cutlery are three different inventories you should classify based on their purpose. You need to record them in a different list.
Second, try to classify your inventory based on storage. You can put vegetables, fruits, cans, or chillers inside the fridge. Those stocks need to be fresh. Besides, you will also consider putting your soup and dessert in the fridge before they are served.
On the other hand, you need to put frozen food, meat, and fish in the freezer. Sometimes, you need to buy a particular freezer to keep them fresh and good.
Then start to manage inventory by classifying them based on the inventory cycles. Separate the fast and slow cycle of your stock. Foods and beverages are fast stock, while cutlery and other inventories like tables and chairs are considered slow-cycle stock.
Also read: Why Business Should Switch to Cloud Inventory Management
2. Complete your stock data as you manage inventory in your cafe
To ease the management, try to record the inventory database as complete as possible. You can start by doing the first step, which is to classify them. Once the data is in your hands, you can continue to count and manage your inventory.
Utilize the Inventory System to simplify your inventory management. This software will help you to track and organize your inventory much easier.
3. Try to forecast your inventory
Stock forecasting is highly recommended as you try to manage inventory for your café. When you do it, don’t just guess what you will need. Check your database to forecast what you need the most and what you don’t need. This will help you to get an insight into how big is the stock quantity you will need in the next period.
Do not forget to consider the special day too, Valentine’s Day. There will be so many people looking for ‘romantic meals’. Try to add more wine and chocolate during that special moment.
4. Do not mix your stock as you manage inventory in your café
Experiencing the loss in your café business is a nightmare. This will likely happen as you have the worst inventory management. Avoid mixing the stock as you manage inventory.
This is the sample case: If you buy some milk while still having it in stock, try to separate them into different spaces. They both have two different expiry dates you need to pay attention to.
By separating them into two spaces, you will know which milk you need to use first. In case you don’t have so much space, try to organize the position. Put the old milk in front so you will use them first.
Also read: Advantages of Cloud Inventory for Business
5. Assign the Same Employee to Track Inventory
When your employees consistently take inventory, they will be able to understand the patterns in your unique inventory. To ensure your inventory’s accuracy, ensure you thoroughly train employees on the process. To find competent employees according to company standards, you can use the employee management system.
6. Maintain a Consistent Schedule
Following a schedule enables you to accurately understand how much of your ingredients and supplies are utilized in a specific period.
7. Implement the FIFO and FEFO Methods
FIFO means First In – First Out and FEFO means First Expired – First Out. These methods also help you reduce inventory losses due to waste of space and unsaleable items.
Also read: 5 Software Every Cafe Owner Should Buy
8. Note Sheet for Food Waste
This sheet can record raw materials that come out because they are wasted (not counted as raw materials that occur in sales).
For example, when raw materials are not used because of changes in the favorite menu that customers prefer to order, or there is damage to raw materials. Your notes will be a solution for the raw material that experiences “evaporation” and makes a new consideration when restocking.
Food waste records can be created by including:
- Time and date
- Goods
- Quantity or Weight
- Reason for wasting
- Employee Initial
9. Utilize Surplus Raw Materials
You can take advantage of excess raw materials by creating these ingredients into a new menu. Besides being able to minimize food waste, this can also boost innovation for restaurants.
10. Using Inventory System to Manage Inventory
One of the most common software that the café has is POS System. This software is essential to proceed with the transactions. However, many forget that there is other essential software for the café business, such as Inventory System.
Given these points, the Inventory System is a great system to proceed with any related inventory daily operations seamlessly. You will also find out that this system will reduce any human errors. Are you ready to implement your requirements into our Inventory System? If you are still unsure, you can try out the free demo first before implementing the system.
