Supply Chain Management is Good for the Health of Restaurant Biz

Suppliers are the one who are in relation with products, processes and customer base and supply chain management has to understand how to get fresh food which can even be stored for a long span. Maintaining a good supply chain will satiate customer’s palate which in turn will help in growing restaurant business. Supply chain management doesn’t have to do anything with logistics and data instead to understand customer’s need and do what is need to be done accordingly. A business runs smoothly only if everything is in place from down to up and a solid supply chain management system is good for the health of a restaurant business.

The Initiate

“System for supply chains is extremely bad in India but the restaurateurs and operators need to fix it by creating awareness amongst the farmers, vendors and suppliers. They must ensure the quality by keep checking if the ingredient is being grown from the same farm where it is supplied from. So that way, they have to develop the farmers and producers as well,” says Chef Alok Anand, Executive Chef at JW Marriott, Kolkata. This initiate should be taken and it’s not the long time before it starts.

Awaking farmers is the need of an hour because 20 to 25 per cent of the products within the farm are wasted and then there would be some percentage getting wasted. People now days are open to explore and present ideas. For example, the farmers from Uttarakhand earlier used to grow only rice but now they have started growing all sorts of organic and exotic vegetables there. Weather also supports this and gives them better results.

The Quality

A lot of infrastructure needs to be done for improving the quality. Government has introduced many schemes to develop this. The only drawback is that people are not aware of the benefits they can take by those schemes. They can use the fund in making cold storages and enhancing facilities then. Restaurateurs should demand for best quality from their vendors and farmers and encourage them to yield best. If restaurateurs start challenging them and set a standard on quality then it’ll be the win-win situation for both as the wastage will be reduced and no one has to compromise on quality. Quality factor is vital because to make excellent dishes, you’ll need excellent ingredients.

The Demands

In 21^st century, people have started eating out more but not for food. They are going out for the service and experience which can only be provided if the supply chain supports the restaurant. “Suppliers have started asking vendors to provide only standardised raw materials or else they won’t take it. They are trying to provide restaurants with finest raw materials at right temperature and with good shelf life,” says Sourav Guha Bakshi, Zonal Head-East, DS Group. For specific requirements of restaurants, suppliers keep visiting the clients to understand what they want and accordingly take the production planning in process.

The Food Safety

The food safety is responsibility of those into the food business and they should not wait for the government to enforce it on them to take any step. They itself should make sure that every procedure is followed as per the standards and standards should be laid by them only. If restaurateurs took the responsibility to serve and prepare the food then it should be made that way only.