In every restaurant, you can see the same dilemma employees face every time they go about their jobs every day. Too much supply can spoil, but too little can affect the types of dishes chefs can prepare for diners. This last situation leads to problems with customers, which affects the way the restaurant behaves in public view. Remember, a less efficiently run restaurant loses the potential to earn.
Smooth management requires good organization and time management skills from a restaurant manager. An effective way to keep your job online is using restaurant forms. Each process in restaurant operations uses a restaurant form to record information and guide the actions of each employee in the process.
Consider these possible restaurant management scenarios:
- Every day, the staff performs inventory management to control the quantity of supplies, delivery dates, and inventory costs. Asking for too much of an ingredient will soon spoil it, especially when it is rarely used in dishes. However, buying too few will also jeopardize the restaurant’s menu, especially when certain dishes are a hit with customers.
- Members of the kitchen team prepare the ingredients, noting the preparation time allowed for certain ingredients. Excessive preparation of food can produce inconsistent flavors that affect the taste of the dish to restaurant patrons. For one thing, the lack of one or two ingredients can also affect the overall quality of a recipe.
- Support staff such as janitors, dishwashers, and electricians make sure lights and kitchen appliances work. They also make sure that the place is always clean before the restaurant opens and when it closes.
In each scenario, we see the need for restaurant checklists and inventory schedules for employees to record and track information. In the first scenario, the end-of-day inventory check controls costs when the manager keeps track of the number of supplies in the pantry. Once the numbers reach the critical point, the manager knows in advance how many items to buy from the supplier and when to buy them. This also helps accountants to manage the money spent each month.
In the second scenario, employees must use kitchen prep sheets and order forms to keep track of information such as the type and amount of ingredients needed and preparation instructions, menu items ordered by customers, and the personal preferences of some diners, ie no tomatoes, no cheese.
In the third scenario, although most restaurants do not hire separate staff for janitorial and electrical services, the importance of using restaurant forms to keep track of cleaning schedules, laundry days (for curtains and table clothes), and machine maintenance should be given time and attention.
These scenarios are just examples of how a manager can use restaurant forms to help organize restaurant operations. A well-organized business saves time and effort, which means less food and labor costs.