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Inventory
management is a very
underappreciated practice as far as our experience in the industry is
concerned. Independent operators feel as if they do not have enough
time to
keep their finger on all segments of their business at all times.
Sadly, most
operators handle inventory on a need basis and do not forecast need in
order to
take advantage of volume buying or incentives.
We
feel at
La Nova that monitoring the cost of goods and minimizing “shrink” or
spoilage
is a proven staple to bottom line success.
That
being
said, you would probably be surprised to know that we still manage our
inventory through a manual system. We have a high volume environment,
so we
have the luxury of being able to have a manager at each location that
devotes
about 50 percent of their time to inventory issues on a day-to-day
basis. We
buy fresh produce daily, which forces us to keep very tight in turns on
those
items and gets us in the coolers every day. It also allows us to gauge
our par
usage on a weekly basis to estimate comparable purchases week to week.
We also
have the luxury of leveraging our volumes to get more service out of
our
distribution partners. Two deliveries each week from each distributor
we use
protects us against a lot of failings that may occur manually.
A
lot of
companies out there that have multiple units utilize a POS system to
manage
their inventory levels. The most technologically advanced systems can
break
down the item inventory needs based on the ingredient decks of items
that are
purchased. You can micromanage the daily turns or analyze the activity
based on
any timeframe. We have a POS system that does this exact thing, but we
do not
utilize it due to the fact that we want to also monitor theft and
spoilage that
the system can only account for on a percentage basis.
We
have
spoken to several POS companies in the past or seen them at trade
events and
they have resources for every style of operator. If you would like to
search
some of the POS companies who have inventory control systems integrated
into
their systems, go to
http://www.pmq.com/mag/2003winter/pos_features_2003.html
for a comprehensive listing.
Some
of the
systems are Windows-based, which allows for ease of transfer of
information to
other programs like Excel and Word. Other systems have proprietary
reporting
that can be tailored to the specific operation. You, as an operator,
need to
analyze the most cost effective solution that gives you enough benefits
to
justify the cost. We are always looking to take it to the next level in
regard
to management, and still suggest doing a manual inventory at least
weekly to
check the reporting.
As
mentioned, a great link to the breakout of individual systems
capabilities is
on the PMQ website.
The address
is:
http://www.pmq.com/mag/2003winter/pos_features_2003.html.
You can’t find a better comparison resource that will give you a head
start
regarding what each of the companies has to offer you.
Each
and
every operation has a different style of ownership and management.
Inventory
management is a key component of success that sometimes flies under the
radar a
bit. Maintaining quality and safety at the store level is fundamental
to the
success of the operation. All you have to do is go into your cooler and
find you
only have dated items to sell that day to gauge the importance of
control here.
Why
does
volume leverage work? It allows us to buy dry goods and other high use
items in
bigger lots to allow for volume price point advantages. We also take
advantage
of every trade show event or promotion activity with our vendor
partners to get
breaks throughout the year. These events also allow for us to get
face-to-face
with the decision-makers for those brands to negotiate any advantage we
possibly can. As always, we push quality as an operator. Serving good
pizza is
a direct result of stocking quality items and using them when they are
at their
best shelf life.
– PMQ –