Keep a Running Inventory on Your Key Products

Keeping a running inventory of some of your key products is one of the most fundamental and effective of all inventory controls, yet I'm constantly amazed at how many operators don't do it. If you are one of those who doesn't, chances are you have an opportunity to cut your food cost and start making more money beginning tomorrow.

When I managed a barbecue restaurant, we had 10 products that basically drove our food cost and made up the biggest slice of our total food cost. We would keep a running inventory on these 10 products every day. These products were chosen because they were either a high cost or a high use product. High use products like fries may have a low unit cost but often make up a large portion of a restaurant's overall food cost.

We had a worksheet, similar to the one below, that helped us keep track of how much inventory we should have on hand for each of these 10 key products at the end of each shift.