How to limit real and theoretical consumption discrepancies ?

1. Reduce food waste

There is always a proportion of foodstuffs that can be wasted, which has a direct impact on a restaurant's gross margin and profitability. These losses occur at various stages of raw material processing.

Ingredient losses may be due to:

• a best-before date exceeded due to overstocking of the ingredient ordered in excess,
• • an ingredient that falls to the ground or is inadvertently burnt, known as breakage.

Losses of finished products can include :

• an error in the kitchen: the cook or waiter made a mistake in the order,
• poor anticipation of products to be prepared in advance: intermediate products to speed up dish assembly in fast-food restaurants, or finished products for window displays in sushi restaurants or bakeries.

All these items count as losses, as do finished products if they can’t be sold through an anti-waste application at the end of the day.

An average loss rate is generally around 2% of sales. If you have higher losses, your supplier order management process is not optimal, and you need to take action. At Inpulse, we've created the first artificial intelligence platform capable of automating restaurant procurement, making it possible to calculate the optimal cost of orders and optimize the cost ratio. This will enable you to supply your restaurants or bakeries on a just-in-time basis, limiting losses and improving your cash flow management.

To ensure ultra-precise raw materials management, we also advise our customers to our customers the FIFO First In First Out method, which consists of methodically arranging refrigerators. Foodstuffs are organized in such a way that those with the shortest use-by dates are used first in the kitchen.

2. Respect portions on recipe cards

Replicating a concept is what makes chain restaurants so successful: the dishes are calibrated and consistent. However, if there is no means of control, the operational reality can be very different from the objectives set.

"We have a food cost to meet, we rationalise all our dishes so we have the same proportions in our restaurant in the 13th and the 10th arrondissements. Inpulse lets us keep an eye on material costs. I look mainly at meat, which accounts for around 30% of food costs,” says Kamal Zaoui, founder of Luks Kebab. He also points out that “One of the main causes of consumption discrepancies is the failure to follow recipes.”

There is often a discrepancy between the portions specified in established recipes and what’s actually used in the kitchen. To compensate for this, restaurant chains are introducing systems to measure the most expensive ingredients at the time of assembly or cooking.For each concept, the right measuring tool or system must be found that won’t slow the pace in the kitchen. Some chains favour utensils such as ladles or plastic measuring cups, while others allow meat packaging, for example, to be carried out by the supplier or the central kitchen to ensure that the perfect portion is weighed beforehand.

3. Identify discrepancies with regular inventories

It's only by having a clear view of your inventory that you can limit stock discrepancies. We recommend that our customers implement :

• Weekly inventory of key and fast-moving products.
• A monthly inventory of all products.

Regular feedback from the field is key to identifying discrepancies in consumption. It also has other beneficial effects. 

For one thing, it makes teams aware of their raw material consumption and the importance of inventory management. 

It also helps reduce the rate of goods theft, known as leakage. It is one of the main causes of discrepancies. Few official statistics exist on the subject, and it seems difficult to avoid when you have a high turnover rate. Establishments that fall victim to theft are those that have little to no stock control. 

Implementing a stock management tool has a dissuasive effect on teams, as inventories are more regular and unusual stock movements are quickly spotted.

{{banner_inpulse}}

4. Set up an incoming goods procedure

Even if your supplier is well-intentioned, there are many reasons why the quantities delivered and the selling prices invoiced may not correspond to the purchase order. Change of meat part, unavailable product, temporary shortage, substitute product in case of shortage, unforeseen price changes, etc.

Missing products? You’ll need to place a last-minute replacement order at a higher price. 

Are others defective? If a faulty item has been delivered to you, and no check is made on receipt, you're increasing your losses without realizing it, with products you can't use. Last but not least, credit note claims are quickly lost on paper, a sum that should not be overlooked, as it can be substantial over the year.

Inpulse offers a fully digitised incoming goods control module to: 

• Check that the quantity delivered corresponds to the quantity ordered.
• Automatically generate credit note requests to suppliers.
• Match supplier invoices with quantities delivered.

With management software like Inpulse, you'll radically reduce errors and save precious time in managing credit note requests.

5. Simplify price list updating

Visit price lists are used to define product prices and availability, which are likely to change regularly and have an impact on the consumption gap.

• Prices

If we don't update these price lists, we risk widening the gap between theoretical and actual food cost , as commodity values are based on obsolete data. If commodity prices are not updated at the same pace as market fluctuations, the consumption gap will increase in value. 

• ‍Product availability

If the availability of products is incorrectly indicated when an order is placed, the manager won’t receive the desired products. He will have to place an emergency order at non-preferential rates. These malfunctions increase the cost of the raw materials consumed, and therefore the difference in consumption value.

With a purchasing data centralisation tool like Inpulse, updates and information transmission are simplified.

6. Declare known losses

All consumption must be recorded for accurate stock monitoring. At Inpulsethere are four categories of loss: breakage, expiry, staff meals and promotional offers, all of which can be fed back into the tool for accurate tracking of stock variations.

Staff meals are often overlooked, and should be declared in order to ascertain whether these losses are consistent with the policy implemented by the network, e.g. one dish per service per employee.

With comprehensive restaurant monitoring software like Inpulse, you can report losses of raw and finished products. It lets you see any unusual losses and get a true picture of your stock levels.