Having strong inventory management is the key to success in the Food and Beverage Industry. A strong inventory management process should put your business in a healthy position to leverage future growth.
However, many F&B businesses make many tedious mistakes throughout the inventory management process which increases both the risk of having cashflow issues and more importantly a loss of customers.
Here are 5 Common Food and Beverage Inventory Management Mistakes and How You Can Avoid Them.
1. Manual Stock Take
The biggest mistake a Food and Beverage business can make in Inventory Management is completing stock take manually. Many businesses still find themselves using either paper systems or spreadsheets to complete monthly stock take. The problem with doing inventory management manually is it’s time consuming and prone to error. Making one error during the stock take process could cause major issues that may take hours to fix.
To maximise your inventory management, F&B businesses need to automate the process. Using an Order Management System like EasyVend, stock numbers automatically update in the background as you buy and sell. What makes an OMS system so advantageous for businesses is it complies beneficial stock reports that help your business make strategic purchasing decisions in the future.
Related Article: The Most Time-Consuming Tasks in the Food & Beverage Industry in 2022.
2. Bulk Purchasing
We get it, Bulk purchasing can and does offer businesses many advantages but in the Food and Beverage industry it is risky and could impact your cashflow. The problem with bulk purchasing products is you are under pressure to sell due to the products having expiration dates.
A mistake that many F&B businesses make is bulk purchasing products to limit their total spend. If you are strategically ordering and selling those products before the expiration date that is okay, but many businesses find themselves having to dispose of products that expire before they sell them. When this happens, your business loses more than just the initial investment.
To avoid experiencing this issue, businesses need to strategically plan their ordering. Understand the demand and only order the appropriate number of products needed.
Related Article: Expenses Food and Beverage Businesses Can Reduce Easily in 2022.
3. No Forecasting
If your businesses doesn’t forecast ordering, you could be losing thousands every month. How will you know how many products to source? How would you know how often to source products? The answer is you wouldn’t, you would need to make a guess. In an industry as fragile as Food and Bev, you can’t afford to not make strategic decisions.
The problem with not forecasting your ordering is you can end up with too many or too little products at any one time. You may need to either dispose of products that expire before they sell or worse, turn a customer away due to you not having stock. Either way your business loses.
To avoid experiencing this issue your business needs to accurately forecast ordering. Understand your sales cycle. Learn how much of a product sells in a monthly basis and order appropriately. Using an OMS, pre-populated stock reports are complied in the background without you needing to do anything. The benefit of this is you can identify sales trends and make strategic purchasing decisions based on your businesses data. The better your forecasting is the better position your business will be in, it’s that simple.
Related Article: How an Order Management System can help your Food and Beverage Business.
4. No Reporting
Reporting is the most important part of inventory management. Many businesses fail to implement the right reporting systems throughout the inventory management process increasing both the risk of wastage and loss of revenue.
To have strong inventory management your business needs to have the right reporting procedure in place. Your team should be able to identify live stock numbers, understand sales cycles and know what needs to be ordered and at what time. The better your reporting is, the easier it will be for your business to make strong management decisions that push your business forward.
Related Article: How Food and Beverage Management Software Improves Reporting.
5. Untrained Staff
Your staff are vital if you want to have strong inventory management. One of the biggest mistakes many F&B businesses make is having untrained staff manage stock. When this happens errors can occur that set your business back.
To strengthen your inventory management, it’s so important that your team is well trained and understands how to complete the job correctly. The more training a staff member has, the less likely they are to make costly mistakes.
Related Article: How Australian Food & Beverage Businesses Can Minimise the Impacts of a Staff Shortage.
Final Word,
Strong Inventory Management is so important in the Food and Beverage industry. The 5 Mistakes mentioned above are common in the F&B business and can be easily avoided through the solutions presented.
We hope you enjoyed reading this article. To read more articles like this visit the EasyVend latest news page here.
About EasyVend
For food and beverage businesses, EasyVend supports and automates every part of your business, freeing you up to grow your sales simply unlike other ERP systems.
EasyVend features include Stock Management, Online Ordering, Invoicing, Receipting, Automatic Credit Card Payments, Xero Accounting Integration, Route Management, Business reporting and more.
To learn more about EasyVend and what sets us apart call us today on 1300 473 744 or submit the form below.