How smart tech can reduce your overhead costs

KEY INSIGHTS

• Smart technology insights can help lower overhead costs
• By keeping track of your food inventory daily you can avoid holding excess stock 
• With Cloud-based software you can monitor changing ingredient prices in realtime
• Maintaining refrigerators and freezers at optimal temperature helps minimise food waste

The evolution of smart technology has made it easier to obtain data which you can use to analyse aspects of your business and gain insights to help reduce your overhead costs. Here are three ways cloud-based and smartphone software can cut down on your costs:

SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMISATION

Keeping daily track of your food inventory can help you reduce food spoilage by avoiding keeping excess stock on hand.

Mobile phone inventory apps like those in systems offered by Lightspeed [https://www.lightspeedhq.com.au/pos/restaurant/inventory] and Simphony [https://www.oracle.com/au/industries/food-beverage/restaurant-pos-systems/pos-integrations/] allow you to input and analyse daily inventory data, recording inventory counts while you’re in the stockroom. By integrating these with your record-keeping software, you’re able to automatically trigger a purchase should inventory drop below a certain level.

You can also use these apps to check in orders, weigh stock and flag discrepancies in the system.

REAL-TIME MENU ANALYSIS

Using Cloud based software you can monitor your sales and ingredient costs in real-time, making it easy to keep track of the changing prices of all ingredients as well as the labour cost (time spent) in preparing and serving all meals.

This means you can easily identify your most expensive ingredients, then compare the prices you’re being charged with those of other suppliers and see where savings can be made.

FOOD WASTE REDUCTION

According to the Australian Institute of Food Safety [https://www.foodsafety.com.au/blog/10-ways-reduce-food-waste-restaurants]a staggering 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted globally, 40 per cent of which comes from restaurants and other food businesses. In Australia we waste around four million tonnes, with a quarter of that coming from businesses. Cutting back on this wastage has never been more important.

One way to reduce food waste is to ensure your refrigerators and freezers are operating at optimal temperature range. Even a few degrees off can adversely affect not only how long your food will keep but its overall quality. 

A Bluetooth connected thermometer connected to an electronic monitoring system can automatically alert staff when temperatures are too high, allowing timely rectification.

Combining this tech with your daily inventory counts makes it even easier to trace variances in waste to their source, such as spoilage, ‘comped’ meals and even stolen food. This means you can identify problems before they impact upon your bottom line.

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