Disposable: They can be the greatest villain of your kitchen!

A customer once said: “We have a serious problem in this contract. The cost of my meals is very high and I have not been able to reduce it. So I am getting the TecFood system to help me understand where the problem is. Will I find it?”

The answer given was: “Of course you will!”

This customer's company had no system to manage and control his business, everything was done in Excel spreadsheets and Kardex forms. In other words, they were holding a very archaic and obsolete method compared to modern days. According to Stockists and Nutritionists, there was no precise control of the ingredients being used to produce the meals.

Therefore, the first step taken was to understand how they were controlling the costs of each service (breakfast, lunch and dinner). As the production management was not computerized, the cost controlling methods were very simple, thus presenting a number of gaps that would be filled with the implementation of a software.

The second step was to monitor their daily operations, from Production to the proper Service. It was important to know how the food was served, if it was portioned or not, the diners profile, if there was any kind of food waste, etc. Here comes the Disposable! The diners would normally take more than one cup and various napkins. According to one of the Nutritionists, there was no way to control it as the flow of people was so intense that they had no time to check the trays of each customer. This approach was very disturbing, considering the fact that we were talking about an abusive consumption of cups and napkins.

Since until that moment the company did not have a tool that could detect any kind of abusive consumption, the implementation of TecFood precisely showed with clarity and precision the actual costs of each service and the possible causes for rising in food price.

Two weeks after implementing the system, with the review of consumption reports, it was identified that the biggest problem was the disposable. The use of cups, toothpicks, straws and napkins was three times more than what would be considered normal. In other words, the use of cups, for example, was an average of three cups per diner served. After three weeks with reports a lot more assertive there was no doubt that the problem was with the disposables. Henceforth, it was necessary to observe how these disposables were used. The first problem identified was the cup dispenser, every time a diner pulled out a cup 2 or 3 would be dispensed. Besides that, toothpicks, straws and napkins were freely available to diners who would always take extra amounts that were not even used. At the end of the process, with the Processed X Planned Consumption Report, it was possible to understand the daily inconsistencies in the use of disposables.

With this information, the owner was already able to make some changes the next day. The cup dispenser was removed from the room and a "disposable kit" was made for each diner. The kits consisted of a straw, a cup, two toothpicks and two napkins wrapping the silverware. On the first day the customers were surprised, but everything was back to normal by the end of the week and the costs had reduced considerably. Some disposables that appeared in the A Classification had gone back to C Classification.

TecFood Cost Reports started to be analysed on a daily basis, causing other significant changes in the cost management and control of each service. The company owner ended the week saying: “It was worthy to have acquired a software for our company. Presently I have a broader vision of the consumption and can make faster and more precise decisions”.

That is our tip for today... be careful with the disposables, they can become the villain of your cash flow history.

Source | Collaboration

Anderson Miranda, Teknisa Consultant