AI & ML
12 min read

The Future of Automated Inventory in Hospitality

E

Epsilon DS Team

2023-11-28

How machine learning is transforming how cafes and restaurants manage their supply chains and reduce waste.

Inventory management in the hospitality sector is undergoing a quiet revolution. By leveraging machine learning models that integrate directly with point-of-sale data, businesses can now predict demand with unprecedented accuracy.


This shifts the focus from reactive ordering to proactive optimization, reducing waste and ensuring that the right products are always in stock when customers want them. Our work in this space demonstrates that even high-variability industries can benefit from rigorous data science.


The Chaos of Manual Tracking

Historically, inventory in cafes and restaurants has relied on "gut feeling" or fragmented spreadsheets. This lead to significant perishable waste—often as high as 20%—and frequent "86ing" of popular menu items. The complexity of managing variants across multiple locations only compounds these issues, making manual tracking almost impossible to scale.


Predictive "Smart Orders"

We've addressed these challenges by developing custom models that integrate with existing supply chain data. These systems generate daily "Smart Orders" that account for:

  • Seasonal Trends: Automatically adjusting for holidays, school breaks, and local tourism cycles.
  • Local Events: Factoring in community gatherings, sporting events, or sudden weather shifts that influence consumer behavior.
  • Historical Velocity: Tracking SKU-level movement in real-time to identify emerging patterns before they become operational bottlenecks.

    • Bypassing Technical Limitations

    To achieve 99% SKU accuracy, we often have to look beneath the surface of standard integrations. By leveraging GraphQL automation engines to bypass traditional REST limitations, we can perform granular data operations that ensure real-time synchronization across all sales channels.


    Operational Transformation

    The real magic happens when data meets the floor. Our implementation strategy includes user-friendly interfaces that empower staff to verify "Smart Orders" with a single tap, reducing the administrative burden on managers. The result is a quantifiable impact on the bottom line: in one recent implementation, we helped a multi-location client reduce food waste by 18% within six months while improving net margins by over 12%.