How to Manage Supply Orders and Inventory for an Ice Cream Shop
When thinking about how to manage supply orders and inventory for your ice cream shop, Gelato Products suggests considering the two major purchasing concepts, just in time inventory (JIT) and just in case inventory (JIC).
Let’s think about JIT first. You need ice cream cups for your customers. The problem with JIT is that you will have a supply of cups that you will use for your customers and their ice cream, and just before those cups run out you order more. However, should you run out of cups before the order arrives you’ll have to either turn customers away or think of something else.
Next let’s consider JIC. You also need ice cream spoons for your customers. With JIC you purchase a huge quantity of spoons, more than you will need all year. The original outlay of cash for this is massive, hurting your bottom line, and now you have all these spoons you need to store, maintain, keep track of, and more. Such a pain.
Using a combination of both JIT and JIC can be the optimal solution when it comes to ice cream shop supplies. The main supply, of course, is ice cream – you want to have enough on hand to provide a variety to the customer, but not so much that you need large freezers where it can be freezer burnt waiting to be sold or if something happens to the shop you lose a huge amount of stock.
