Inventory Management is what keeps your business afloat. Without it, you could risk losing sales and end up wasting money that could force your restaurant to close. Figuring out the correct amount of items to keep in stock, along with the proper flow of goods, the correct handling, and the best pricing options, is crucial to your success. And keeping all this important information to yourself won’t help your company succeed – you need to train your staff how to assist in doing this as well. When setting out to do inventory management training, first read these tips on how you can provide the most valuable information to your team for optimal results.

Demo the Inventory Management Software

Your inventory management software and tools come with lots of features and settings. There’s no point in only having one person who can understand how to utilize all the programs benefits. Instead, plan a training session with your staff that demo’s all of the useful functions of the software. Explain how each function can benefit their day to day operations and target specific applications useful to each team – the chef may not need the same applications as your bartender.

Show the Numbers

Innovative Inventory Management Systems are now using real-time analytics. With various reports, such as Profit and Loss or Theoretical vs. Actual Usage, you can see the information needed to make better decisions. Teach your team how to interpret the data models and how to use the different reports to provide better solutions.

Teach Employees to Maximize Resources

No two products will have the same supply and demand pattern. Each will have different target fill rates, however, without training your employees, you may not be stocking and forecasting properly, which can end up costing you money. Teach your staff how to maximize resources and use the inventory management software to manage the fill rates efficiently.

Train on How to Monitor Suppliers

It’s important that all your employees know how to review the stock that comes in from the suppliers against the data metrics that are tracked on the inventory management software. If no one is looking at the data then how will you be able to determine if your supplier is reliable or actually delivering what is promised? Train your staff to monitor the supplier’s activity closely so you can identify any bogus deliveries or improper conduct.

Coach Staff On Purchasing

Staff need to be fluent on how to create orders, enter invoices and credits, how to customize count sheets, enter in the sales information, use bid lists and par levels, and finalize inventory orders. Coach each employee on how to use the inventory management system to purchase items needed in the restaurant to maximize profits.

When it comes to your restaurant; your staff need to have the proper inventory management training to ensure the success of your business. At Optimum Control, we offer training sessions so you can get the most out of our software and fully understand the power of Optimum Control and how it can benefit your business.