Clipboard, chiller, phone
Every afternoon the buyer walks the chillers, the freezer and the dry store, counts what is there, looks at next week's plan and rings round the suppliers. It works because the buyer knows the products, the suppliers and the quirks: the cream that is only delivered on Tuesdays, the spice blend with a long lead time, the chicken supplier that needs orders by noon.
It stops working when the plan changes after the walk-round, when two products share an ingredient nobody connected, or when the buyer is off and someone else has to guess.
Why ordering stays in one head
The maths is simple in principle: what the plan needs, minus what you have, minus what is already coming. In a food factory, each of those three numbers is hard to get. The plan lives in a spreadsheet. Recipes live with technical. Stock on hand is only accurate right after a count. Open purchase orders are in email.
- Recipes are held in a different file from the production plan.
- Shared ingredients across products are not totalled together.
- Stock records drift between counts, especially for part-used containers.
- Supplier lead times, minimum orders and delivery days are remembered.
- Short-life ingredients cannot simply be over-ordered as a buffer.
The cost of ordering by feel
Runs moved because an ingredient did not arrive. Premium prices for next-day deliveries. Short-life ingredients thrown away because too much came in. Cash sitting in dry goods bought in bulk to feel safe. None of these are the buyer's fault. They follow from having to do in their head what a system should be doing.
The ordering tool we build
- The production plan comes in from your ERP, scheduling tool or planning spreadsheet.
- Recipes and sub-recipes are linked to products, so every run is exploded into ingredient and packaging quantities, including shared ingredients.
- Stock on hand comes from your stock records, with a quick tablet count screen for the lines that drift, and open purchase orders are included.
- Each supplier's lead time, delivery days, pack size and minimum order are held against each material.
- The tool drafts purchase orders by supplier, rounded to their pack sizes and timed to their delivery days, and shows the date each material runs out if nothing is ordered.
- The buyer reviews, changes and approves. Approved orders are emailed to suppliers or posted to your ERP.
| Number | Source |
|---|---|
| What the plan needs | Plan times recipes |
| What you have | Stock records plus quick counts |
| What is coming | Open purchase orders |
| When it must arrive | Supplier lead times and delivery days |
The buyer still makes the call. They are just starting from a draft that already knows the plan and the recipes.
What changes for the buyer
The afternoon walk-round shrinks to a check on the few items the tool is unsure about. Orders are placed earlier, at normal prices. When the plan changes, the tool shows what else needs to change with it. And someone else can cover the job without a phone call to the buyer on holiday.
Stores gain a clearer view of what is arriving and when, which helps them plan space in the chillers and freezer before the pallets turn up rather than after.
Finance gains too. Committed spend on ingredients is visible before the invoices arrive, and bulk buying becomes a decision somebody makes on purpose rather than a habit.
Could this be your buying office?
- Ingredient orders are based on a walk round stores.
- Only one person knows each supplier's lead times and cut-offs.
- Runs have been moved because an ingredient was missing.
- Short-life ingredients are thrown away after over-ordering.
- Recipes and the production plan are in different files.