I can't right now. I got to get the order done in the next five minutes before the cutoff.
Oh, hey chef, I also noticed that we got an extra case of soy
sauce in on the order today.
We still have that case from like a month ago, but we're completely out of ketchup.
You want me to run to the store before service? Or is that something you want to go and do?
Hey, everybody. Ryan Gromfin here – author, speaker, chef, restauranteur,
founder of TheRestaurantBoss.com,
as well as ClickBacon.com and ScaleMyRestaurant.com.
I hope you enjoyed that little tried to be funny introduction,
but maybe all too serious introduction because
I'm still amazed.I want to say shocked,
but I'm not shocked because I'm used to it at this point, but I'm still amazed
at how every restaurant I visit,
almost every phone call I have with an owner or a chef or a manager,
anytime we get into this,
we always find that they are running to the grocery store,
or we'll call or cash and carry on a very regular basis.
And what I also always find is that there is no
order guide in place, or at least not even remotely,
a properly formatted order guide.
So while I joked in that introduction, is this happening to you?
Are you running to the grocery store? Is your staff running to the grocery store?
Are you constantly running out of things?
Are you constantly going to we'll call and cash and carry
because of bad ordering practices?
So what I want to do today is, I want to just share with you
how I build an order guide and what I believe is
the absolute most important things
in an order guiding.If you do this work, if you trust me,
you're going to have to trust me here because a lot of people don't,
I tell my clients this and they fight me and they fight me and they fight me
until finally, I win, they build the order guide properly.
And then all of a sudden it’s like, Oh, like angels
singing from the heavens.
They don't go to the grocery store anymore.
So here's a couple of things that I want to do for you.
First, you have to eliminate blind ordering,
that introduction you saw that my sheet of paper was totally blank.
That's what most people do. Is that what you do? Is that what your staff does?
Do you walk into the walk-in or your pantry or your dry storage
with a blank piece of paper and just write down things that you think you don't see?
Do you see the problem in that? If you, I don't see them, what are the chances you're going
to remember that you need it?
So you have to stop with blind ordering.
You have to create an order guide.
Now, here are my rules for an order guide.
I call these shelf to sheet order guides.
Rule number 1 - everything,
everything goes on an order guide.
Not some things, everything.
If you need paperclips in your restaurant, they go on an order guide.
If you need pens or pencils, they go on an order guide,
not just food.
Everything you need in your restaurant goes on in order guide,
but we don't know which order guide yet.
So rule number 2 - one order guide per vendor.
When it's time to order, you don't say I need to order pencils.
You say I need to do an order from Office Depot.
You don't say it's time to order chicken, you say I need to do an order from Cisco
or U.S. Foods or PFG, or whoever it is.
So order guides are created first by vendor.
Number 3 - each order guide is built
shelf to sheet.
That means that it's in the order that you store the product.
So if you're doing your broad line distributor order guide,
don't do it in alphabetical order and don't do it by product category.
Do it how you store it.
So walk-in, shelf one in the walk-in, then shelf two in the walk-in,
then shell three in the walk-in, then dry storage, then freezer, whatever it is.
But don't be running around your restaurant because you put your order guide in alphabetical order.
That makes no sense, right? So build your order guide first by vendor,
then shelf to sheet.
Number 4 - this is the one that you're going to fight me on.
Come on, bring it on. This is the one you're going to fight me on.
Put it in the comments below and tell me how crazy I am or tell me you agree with me.
I want to know your thoughts, but this is the one that's going to ruffle some feathers.
Nothing, nothing gets ordered
from two vendors.
Maybe you could get your cheese from vendor one and vendor two,
but you not allowed to.
You have to pick a vendor and here's why you have to pick a vendor
because when you say, well, I could get it here or there. You don't know how much to order.
Your team doesn't know how much to order, and that's going to bring up rule number 5 here,
and then let me tell you that. And then, we'll go back to rule number 4.
Rule number 5 - your delivery/pickup days are set.
They're not when I need stuff. They're not, sometimes we go Wednesday,
sometimes we go Thursday, they're set.
So you may get a delivery from vendor one on Monday and Thursday,
and then you may go to cash and carry on Wednesday and Saturday, that's fine.
I hate cash and carry, but with that said, that's fine,
but they're set.
And here's why.
Remember rule number 5 – nothing,
you don't get anything from two places, right? Nothing goes on two order guides.
And number 5 was. your pickup days/ delivery days are set because
how do you know how much of something to order
if you don't know how long it needs to last you?
In order to properly order the right amount, you have to know how long
it's going to last.
You can't know how long it needs to last you unless you know
who you get it from. And when your next order is.
So what ends up happening is people say things like, well,
I don't need to order the cheese today because I can just get it tomorrow,
but then they don't need anything else. So then, they can you go to the
store to get the cheese that they didn't order,
and then they get a few other things.
And now you have too much food or vice versa, it creates chaos.
So please trust me on this one.
I know it sounds harder and I know my rules are strict,
but I do that on purpose because I don't believe in gray.
I don't believe in maybes; I don't believe in sometimes.
If you want to build a giant business, you need to create black and white systems,
processes, and procedures.
These are my rules
for how to build a proper order guide and avoid your staff forgetting things,
over-ordering, and going to the store.
It is the most incredible waste of time and money possible.
I hope you enjoyed this week's video.
And remember systems create freedom
freedom creates value and value creates scale.
I love every single one of you, crazy restaurant people out there.
And until next week, have an absolutely amazing day.
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