Your truck can run out of two things: food and hands. Either one sends a paying customer away hungry. This week you learn to read your Daily Report and tell which one it was.
Learning objectives. After this week you can (1) describe operations as inputs → process → outputs; (2) explain the trade-off between stockouts and spoilage; and (3) compute capacity utilization and find the bottleneck.
Remember this: too little prep loses sales, too much prep wastes cash, and your Daily Report shows you both.
1) The transformation process
Inputs → Process → Outputs
Operations turns inputs (tortillas, meat, the crew's work) through a process (the grill and the assembly line) into outputs (a finished taco). The supply chain is the whole network from raw materials through suppliers to the final customer. Quality control checks that every output meets the same standard.
2) Inventory: stockouts vs. spoilage
Inventory is what you hold to use or sell. A stockout (running out of something customers want) loses the sale and disappoints the customer. Spoilage (perishables you bought and did not sell) wastes cash. Just-in-time buying receives inputs right when they are needed, which leans on reliable suppliers. Inventory turnover measures how fast stock is sold and replaced. Your report prints both sides of the trade-off: a Stockout line when customers wanted your main item and could not get it, and these:
Leftover Prep = Prep Bought − Ingredients Your Sales Used
Prep bought $600, ingredients used $480: $120 was left over, and the Spoilage line shows what that cost you.
3) Capacity, utilization and the bottleneck
Capacity is the most a process can produce in a period; throughput is the rate units actually move through. The slowest step, the bottleneck, limits the whole line.
Capacity = Staff × 190 units
Utilization = Units Served ÷ Capacity × 100
Three staff give 570 units. Serve 456 and utilization is 456 ÷ 570 = 80%. Every item counts: a burger, its fries and its drink are three units. Now read the clues together. A stockout at 100% utilization means the crew was the bottleneck. A stockout well under 100% means the food ran out first.
Quick self-check
(a) Two staff serve 304 units: capacity and utilization? (b) Prep bought $500, ingredients used $430: how much was left over? (c) A stockout at 100% utilization: what was the bottleneck? (Answers: 380 units and 80%; $70; the crew's capacity.)
Common mistakes
- Thinking more inventory is always safer. Stock you cannot sell is cash waiting to spoil.
- Counting only main items. Sides and drinks use capacity too.
- Blaming demand for every stockout. Check utilization first to see which input ran out.
This week in the arena
Pick one day with a stockout or a big Spoilage line. Write down that day's utilization, Prep bought and Ingredients your sales used. Decide which input bound the day: food, crew, or neither. Report what you find.