Many businesses have been feeling the pinch in ways many during this lockdown period and whether you have learnt serious lessons about how processes and practices can improve or not, this is a great time for the leaders in your organisation to future-proof the business. Many experts agree lockdowns will return — is your food and beverage enterprise prepared?

Modern businesses are flexible, they adapt to change, move with the times and optimise opportunities for sales, process improvements and doing their bit for society and the environment by minimising waste.

So, what lessons have you learnt about your organisation over the last few weeks?

Create a back-up plan

Looking at the supply chain where could you have performed better? Were there shortages in supply because you don’t diversify your suppliers? Where there too many overseas suppliers and problems with shipments not coming in? Look at your geographies and diversify suppliers or see what orders you can transfer to support UK business.

Stock levels

What was your stock control like? Did you understand what you had on-site at all time with real-time reporting on what needing re-ordering? How did your forecasting systems cope with unforeseen demand signals? If this crisis has had you tearing your hair out then talk to us about how we can help with monitoring inventory, forecasting and setting up new sales channels to minimise waste.

Be transparent

Employees at every level of your business will have their personal experiences of what worked well and not quite so well within their area of expertise. Although it is a management decision to change processes, consulting everyone on the front line will pay long term dividends.

Business continuity should be as much of a part of daily thought as the day to day running of the business. Even robust business continuity plans might need a few tweaks after this pandemic, as most of us have not seen this kind of economic impact on a worldwide basis in our lifetime.

Contact us for more information on how we can minimise waste through optimum stock management.