What is Inventory Management?

Inventory management is the ability to monitor, control, and optimize all food, beverages, ingredients, and supplies used within the restaurant. With effective management, it allows the restaurant to stock adequate supplies, control wastage, decrease expenditure, and ensure nothing runs out when required.

The front-of-house operations are all the activities related to customers. This includes-

• Foods
• Beverages
• Packaging materials
• Cleaning agents
• Kitchen supplies
• Retail items

It is necessary to ensure profitability by maintaining efficient inventory management.

How does inventory management work?

Inventory control is keeping track of levels from the moment they arrive until they are used or sold.

The process usually runs like this-

• The restaurant obtains food and supplies from vendors.
• Stock is entered into the inventory management system.
• The system updates quantities when ingredients and supplies are removed from stock.
• Regular manual inventory counts are performed by managers to verify inventory quantities in the system.
• Low stock items are highlighted to aid in creating purchase orders.
• Usage, waste, and food cost reports are used.

Most restaurants add inventory management to their POS system to automatically track the products they have.