Understanding shrinkages and shortages

When food items and drink stocks run low with little warning, this can impact menus, service, and the customer experience. Suddenly, extra supplies are needed urgently, which can increase the overall cost of goods sold. This scenario can also point to problems with inventory management and other aspects of the restaurant operation.

Common challenges for restaurants

Shrinkages and shortages pose pervasive challenges in the food industry, resulting in increased operational costs, disruptions and lost revenue. Discrepancies in stock counts and a lack of real-time insights contribute significantly to this predicament, making proactive measures essential.

Clear signs that shrinkages and shortages are an issue

Do these issues sound familiar?

  • Discrepancies in stock counts:
    Regular differences between recorded and actual stock counts during inventory checks can signal there’s a problem.
  • Unexplained reductions in profit margins:
    A noticeable and unexplained decrease in profit margins, especially when sales remain constant, suggests issues such as theft, errors or inefficient inventory management.
  • Frequent out-of-stock scenarios:
    Running out of certain menu items despite seemingly adequate stock levels tells you there’s an issue. This affects customer satisfaction and may point to problems in procurement, storage, or monitoring processes.

How to reduce shrinkages and shortages

Inventory control: Running low on supplies

Efficient procurement processes are vital to ensure a seamless supply of ingredients, preventing disruption in the kitchen and enhancing operational efficiency.

Syrve empowers you to set inventory levels for ingredients and sub-recipes, providing timely notifications for low stock – and quality/volume checks on incoming orders from suppliers – to prevent running out of supplies.

With a real-time view of your inventory position, Syrve enables you to capture events such as sales data, stock checks, wastage, shipment acceptance, transfers and batch production during service. This allows you to identify popular items adjust ordering and menu offerings promptly and ensures a proactive approach to inventory control.

Discrepancy tracking: Precision in stock counts

Accurate stock counts are fundamental to maintaining precise inventory records.

Syrve’s Discrepancy Tracking automates the calculation of the difference between actual quantity and cost, counted values and estimated values expressed as a percentage. This streamlines stock counting processes allowing you to track and address discrepancies efficiently, maintaining control over stock levels and reducing errors.

Inventory reconciliation: Minimising errors through monitoring

Monitoring restaurant activity is crucial in identifying errors that lead to shortages or surpluses, allowing you to correct problems swiftly.
Syrve’s Inventory Reconciliation proactively addresses discrepancies from entry errors or incorrect recipe settings. Holding staff accountable for detected shortages or surpluses fosters greater responsibility, minimising errors in the reconciliation process. Regular monitoring ensures the accuracy of inventory reconciliation, reducing the risk of discrepancies.

Video surveillance: Enhancing security and visibility

Security and visibility are paramount in minimising shrinkages as they deter theft and unauthorised activities.

Syrve’s Video Surveillance integration captures detailed information on user activity and inventory movements. This includes event time, priority, type, employee, terminal, order number and shift number … all serving as a powerful deterrent against theft and supporting a secure and accountable restaurant operation.

Data analytics: Informed decision-making through real-time Insights

Leveraging real-time insights from data analytics is crucial for informed decision-making.

Syrve’s Data Analytics allows you to track sales data, inventory levels, procurement practices and other relevant metrics in real-time, to identify trends and patterns. This enables informed decisions about addressing shrinkages and shortages efficiently. For example, issues such as over-portioning or training might come to light.

The bottom line

Addressing shrinkages and shortages are crucial for profitability and sustainability. Syrve provides the tools needed to gain control over inventory, minimise errors and enable more efficient kitchen operations.

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