5 Ways To Make Your Foodservice Operation More Efficient

From improving your operation’s bottom line to increasing employee job satisfaction, efficiency in your food service operation is essential for several reasons. Unfortunately, improving workplace efficiency has proven to be easier said than done for many managers.

Here are five proven ways to make your food service operation more efficient, and why dietary management software is essential for streamlining your operations.

1. Collect Resident Dietary Data

You can’t fulfill the needs of your residents without understanding their individual dietary needs. Some residents of your food service operation have dietary restrictions while others have specific meal preferences.

Without tracking this information, your employees will encounter roadblocks during each mealtime and food waste will continue to increase.
First, collect resident dietary data by establishing individual patient profiles within your dietary management software.

Regularly update this data as you learn of resident food preferences and dietary restrictions. Once this data is entered into the system it will always be at your fingertips to improve efficiency when creating meal plans and while ensuring the proper nutritional intake of each resident.

2. Plan Meals Well in Advance

Menu planning is a crucial component of achieving efficiency within your food service operation. When meals are planned well in advance, this both provides the time you need to place food delivery orders, and contributes to your overall goal of reducing food waste.

A quality dietary management system allows you to plan the operation’s menus months in advance and reduces time spent planning master and patient-specific menus.

3. Track Food Deliveries

A menu plan is only effective when you have ingredients on hand to fulfill that plan. Improperly tracked food orders leave the door wide open for inaccurate deliveries, misspent funds, and other dilemmas.

An efficient food ordering and delivery process starts with ensuring that each ingredient of your menu plan is ordered and that each ordered ingredient is then delivered by your food vendor.
Make this process less cumbersome by tracking each step in your dietary management software.

4. Update Technology

From planning the month’s menus to placing food delivery orders, the employees of your food service operation must complete many monthly checklists.

Streamline all processes by tracking information in an online dietary management system. Online software utilizes up-to-date technology and is easy for your employees to use.

When the software you use is efficient and intuitive, this translates to increased employee productivity and a better bottom line.

5. Define Employee Duties

A well-organized operation is an efficient operation. Ensure your employees always remain on task by clearly defining which duties are the sole responsibility of each job title.

This reduces task confusion and ultimately increases employee productivity. If you are using a dietary management system, limit which areas of the system each employee can access in relation to their job duties.
This improves system security, reduces employee fraud, and improves task efficiency.

Achieving efficiency in your food service operation increases resident satisfaction, improves the bottom line, and ensures employee productivity.

Bill Valway is COO of Brimstone Allon Enterprises, LLC. They have developed “Dietary Manager Online”, an online foodservice management software for achieving efficiency in food service operations.