Production planning for restaurants
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What is a production plan in a restaurant?
A production plan in a restaurant refers to the systematic approach taken to manage the preparation of food and beverages in the kitchen. A well-defined production plan includes demand forecasting, menu engineering, optimizing inventory, and making sure the right ingredients are available at the right time for each item prepared. Establishing this will enable restaurateurs to meet their business and customer needs efficiently.
Benefits of establishing a production plan
Cost efficiency
Every ingredient counts in the restaurant industry. A restaurant production plan helps you reduce food wastage, control inventory costs, and increase your profit margins.
Consistent quality
Consistency is key when it comes to preparing dishes in a restaurant. With a well-structured production plan, you can ensure each dish is made to the same high standard every time.
Sharp operations
Time is the essence of a restaurant business, and a production plan schedule enables better internal communication, faster service, and optimized business operations.
Menu adaptability
The restaurant business and customer preferences are dynamic. Having a production plan allows you to quickly adapt to these changes by introducing new dishes, updating your menu to reflect seasonal ingredients, and catering to customer demand variations.
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Challenges in restaurant production and how we solve them
Running a restaurant comes with its unique set of challenges when it comes to restaurant production planning. Here are some of these challenges and possible solutions to them.
Ingredient management
Cutting food waste
Fluctuating customer demands
Same experience across outlets
Consistent quality
01. Ingredient management:
Creating and managing an accurate bill of materials (BOM) for your restaurant's dishes can be complex and time consuming. Having the right ingredients in the right quantities for each dish is crucial for a successful production plan.
Solution:
Easily view, change, and update the BOM for each dish in real time. Check production history and swiftly make decisions to ensure you have the correct ingredients in stock before production.
02. Cutting food waste:
The battle against food wastage is a never-ending challenge for restaurants, and it can turn into a constant war if not managed properly by a wastage management system.
Solution:
Prepare the right quantity of food to prevent overstocking and spoilage. Identify wastage in production, track it separately, and make adjustments to the production plan to minimize wastage.
03. Fluctuating customer demands:
With changing customer preferences, it is challenging for restaurateurs to predict how much food to prepare and what items to prioritize. Preparing the item without foreseeing the expected waste is a daunting issue in the restaurant industry.
Solution:
With omnichannel capabilities, you can understand the customer demand pattern across multiple channels and plan the production to meet their evolving needs.
04. Same experience across outlets:
Coordinating production for multiple outlets with a central kitchen involves logistical complexities, including varying demand, inventory management, and transportation hurdles.
Solution:
With multi-location management and centralized inventory control, easily fulfill indent requests raised by franchise outlets. Dispatch raw materials, semi-finished or fully-finished foods, and packing materials. Ensure consistent quality across all outlets.
05. Consistent quality:
Ensuring that every guest visiting the restaurant experiences the same taste they enjoyed on their previous visit is a top priority for any restaurant.
Solution:
With the recipe management feature, restaurants can ensure the consistent quality of each dish. This tool enables planning and executing recipes with precision, ensuring guests enjoy their favorite flavors with every visit.
Production plans in multi-chain outlets
Smooth coordination between individual outlets or franchises and the central kitchen is essential while running a multi-chain restaurant.
A good RMS handles outlet and franchise requests and fulfills them in the central kitchen.
Requirements
Raised by the outlets
Outlets or franchises in the multi-chain network can submit requests to the central kitchen for semi-finished foods, ready-to-serve items, raw materials for their live kitchen, and packaging materials for takeout and delivery orders.
Fulfillment
Done by the central kitchen
The central kitchen efficiently manages requests from outlets and franchises by creating a production plan for semi-finished and ready-to-serve food items. It also ensures a smooth flow of raw materials to the outlets' live kitchens and distributes packing materials used for takeout and delivery orders to the outlets.
Why should you select
Gofrugal for managing your production plan?
Gofrugal's restaurant management software empowers you with a comprehensive set of features designed to manage your production and kitchen operations. With these tools at your disposal, you can focus on how to delight your customers at your restaurant. Key production planning features include:
Ingredient procurement
Efficiently source and manage ingredients. Track suppliers, purchase orders, and invoices.
Learn moreBill of materials (BOM)
Create detailed ingredient lists with quantities for every dish on your menu, and auto-update your inventory.
Learn moreRecipe management
Define, organize, and standardize all your recipes for consistent taste and quality all year.
Learn moreBatch management
Track production and inventory in batches with unique batch numbers, ensuring quality control and traceability from production to sales.
Learn moreMenu management
Easily add, remove, and modify menu items. Set and update prices as ingredient costs fluctuate.
Learn moreWaste management
Minimize waste on raw materials and finished products, cut costs, and improve sustainability with effective wastage tracking.
Learn moreCost analysis
Gain insight into procurement, production, and price to make data-driven decisions on pricing and profitability.
Learn moreStock transfer
Whether it's fully-finished goods ready for sale, or semi-finished items moving between production stages, stock transfer helps you manage and track the journey of your products and their inventory.
Learn more
How do I get started with
Gofrugal's restaurant management software?
To get started with Gofrugal, simply reach out to our team through our website or click the link below. Our restaurant business experts will guide you through the process and provide a personalized demonstration.
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