Continued diversification in consumer lifestyles and tastes is driving increased variation in demand across all industries, and the restaurant business is no exception.
Diners want to see local, organic, vegan, gluten-free and other unique options on the menu. In addition, off-premise, online-order capabilities introduce more back-of-house supply chain challenges as restaurants attempt to maintain consistent ordering and tracking.
The net result is more suppliers, more SKUs, smaller quantities and more processes creating highly complex supply chains that require more and more resources to manage.
Globalization and compliance add to purchasing intricacy
Globalization further complicates restaurants’ procurement processes. Now able to source ingredients from almost anywhere, restaurants must enlarge supply networks and optimize order processes to keep up with evolving consumer expectations. Factoring in not only sourcing but also transportation, effectively managing multiscale supply chains can quickly become overwhelming.
Increasingly stringent food safety standards and compliance directives also inhibit lean and efficient purchasing processes. Having clear end-to-end visibility all the way down to the SKU level is important both to meet regulatory requirements and to satisfy consumers seeking this sort of transparency. Unfortunately, finding that visibility amid such intricacy often proves difficult.
Technology helps combat complexity
Implementing technology in the purchase order process can help fight that complexity, providing supply chain insights that improve efficiency and help manage the huge number of transactions flowing throughout a restaurant chain’s network.
Today’s modern purchase order platforms connect all supply chain stakeholders, streamlining processes through automation and standardization. In addition, these platforms can execute numerous checks and balances, helping ensure the accuracy of order quantities and costs without the need for constant supervision.
But perhaps most importantly, these technology platforms collect and store enormous amounts of data. This data provides the visibility necessary to better understand supply chains, helping identify how to optimize them for the future. With reliable, real-time data, restaurants can proactively plan supply and demand with a high degree of confidence and accuracy. And in a fast-moving, elaborate industry, those data-driven insights can make a critical difference.
Leveraging external supply chain experts
While technology can help streamline the purchase order process, it is only one piece of a successful, strategic supply chain plan.
Today, many restaurants are turning to external teams of dedicated experts to help them turn complexity to their advantage. Good third-party procurement providers have the resources to understand specific business needs and translate them into flexible solutions—up and down the supply chain—that dynamically adjust to diner demand.
Carving out a specialized niche, these providers dedicate their work to analyzing opportunities and gaps in restaurant ordering, shipping, transportation, and receiving. They help create and implement process improvements by leveraging the powerful, modern technologies mentioned above, resulting in standardized procedures, optimized orders, reliable insights, fewer barriers and lower costs.
To stay competitive, a full understanding of how restaurants are (or aren’t) meeting diners’ increasingly particular demands is essential. For many, that begins with structuring the sourcing process in a manageable and efficient way, drawing on third-party providers’ technology, experience and scale to help deliver better outcomes.
This post is sponsored by CH Robinson