ManageFirst Controlling Foodservice Cost Practice Test

The main idea here is that a production schedule is driven by forecasted demand and the sales mix for items. Knowing the percentage of each item you expect to sell lets you turn the overall forecast into specific production quantities for every menu item, so you cook enough of each dish to meet expected demand and minimize waste. For example, if you forecast 500 total servings and a particular dish is expected to represent 20% of sales, you’d plan to produce about 100 servings of that dish.

Other factors influence how feasible that schedule is, but they don’t determine the mix on which the schedule is built. Employee availability affects when and how many staff are able to work to execute the plan; supplier lead times influence when you can actually buy ingredients; and kitchen capacity can constrain production amounts, but the starting point for the schedule is the expected sales mix so you align production with customer demand.