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Help: the market is shifting
3. Build a better shelf life into the product lines
For food factories like bakeries, the shelf life of goods is a key element of profitability.
First we need to be specific about what we are trying to accomplish in addition to a simple volume of time. Secondly, we have to be educated concerning what is possible so you are not asking for the impossible. Thirdly, we have to know how to create product that stays eatable for as long as possible.
To better understand shelf life it is important to separate two common concerns which have markedly different causes and cures. One half of the discussion revolved around molding or staling by microorganism. The other form of staling is a mechanical hardening of the starch and protein matrix that makes up the structural characteristics of many baked goods.
Click here for a more on building a better product shelf life into baked prepared goods.
4. Minimize material waste
Food is expensive. So is waste. Ask yourself:
a. Do you make extra products every day anticipating customers that call in late?
b. Are there tracking practices in place that identify how much of a dough or batter is unsalable or material waste? Look carefully for the practices that allow material waste in production. This category includes everything from scaling errors resulting in material being thrown out, batter and dough lost in the processing steps, to quality control standards or practices that are insufficient to reasonably limit unsalable goods.
c. Are you allowing the coveted customers to abuse you by making constant changes and cancellations thus causing chaos in your labor use and production efficiencies? Do you need help sufficiently planning production? Customer agreements are necessary and they can be sold to customers as attempts to keep the price to them down. Minimizing chaos in daily production may yield vast amounts of waste savings through limiting unsold products and efficiencies in production and thus production time and cost.
d. Are you ordering ingredients without closely regarding shifting demand?
To read about the # 1 cause of food waste in restaurants, Joe Dunbar’s article is posted here.
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