Don't be afraid to implement a good food cost control

I was impressed about a survey that I read, where it mentions that around 60% of operators when asked, said that they did not use the inventory software that was part of with their POS system, or it didn′t perform as expected. I was thinking WOW... how do they run a restaurant. are they just happy enforcing a food cost percentage and when it goes up increase menu prices to compensate?, Do they just use spreadsheets and what kind of information they get with it?
If this is what happens in the real world, a lot of money and opportunities are lost.

As a researcher on this subject, I tried to figure out who this restaurants are and why.

This are my conclusions and analysis:

Probably most of this restaurants are the independents, or smaller chains.If this is true, this adds to the disadvantage in the competition with the larger chains.

The larger chains streamline the process of implementation and maintenance of this necessary type of software making it viable and useful.

I am going to mention some of the reasons that make it easy for this type of operator, and therefore giving them 3 to 8 percent profit advantage.

?Recipe maintenance is done by employees exclusively assigned to do it.
?Menu offering is more stable.
?Providers, packing, prices, are more stable
?Data entry routines are standardized.
?Follow up by supervisors is routinely done

The independents and smaller chains give up on a technical control system and probably they make most of this 60%. This are some of the reasons:

?Most software is cumbersome, boring and difficult to maintain as developers pack it with options to try to fit all
?Smaller businesses regularly change providers,menus,packing units, product brands, making it very difficult to keep up with.
?Discipline in the data entry process is not as routinely done.
?Managers and owners many times dont have the knowledge and training to realize how important good inventory management is for a successful and profitable foodservice operation.

Just to make a point here, and emphasize the importance of cost control. I am going to define what GOOD cost control would be in a food service operation.

?Accounting is not cost control. A foodservice operation needs a shorter period than a monthly cycle and accounting software can′t do the job

?A control system needs to be Continuous and Cyclic. You need to define a task to perform as a routine like, what to count when, and how many times during the month, and always do it as routine

?A control system needs to be an easy task and easy to implement. When choosing a control system, it is very important to define a method that is going to be done by management, and take a reasonable amount of their working shift. It should never take a manager more than 30 minutes of their daily routine.

?It needs to provide only the necessary information This days with the availability of computing power, it is very easy to overproduce information. it is easy to loose the focus of the relevant information when you produce more information than you need.

?It has to provide accountability. A good control system needs to provide information to point into the performer that is responsible for the under-performance in a way that management can take appropriate action and correction.