LESSON 3: ORDER GUIDES

Ordering guides and having the right guides are crucial to maintaining consistency and profitability. They should be used to accurately place orders. Types of order guides include standard or adding scan bars to the guide for use of handhelds when ordering.

Establish Pars and units on your guide to accurately place orders and to track items that are not selling. Par levels are based on a specific standard formula:

Unit par level – Daily average usage x a safety stock (1.25) x the number of day’s supply needed. You should do a two-week usage study in order to know your daily average usage.

A general formula for estimating par level is:

• Par level – (weekly inventory use + Safety stock)/Deliveries per week
• Units – Represent the minimum amount of a product or facings to keep your Deli Meat case, Salad and Entrée cases always looking full. (This also helps you track items that are not great movers or aren’t selling.)
  
  

Why maintain a Par Inventory system for your Deli/Food Service operation?

• It will help you manage food costs.
• It will red-flag losses from theft or pilferage.
• It will quickly identify slow-moving or dead stock items.
• It will help you to plan your purchases better and save money spent on labor throwing unnecessary loads and using storage in walk-in and freezers.
• It’s a great tool to plan for trade show purchases to avoid over-ordering.
• It will make operations simpler and take the guess work out of the process.