Hospitality glossary · Service and operations
A par level is the amount of an item you want to have in stock after each delivery, so you do not run out before the next one arrives.
In practice
Definitions are easy. What matters is how the thing behaves in a real operation, and where it tends to go wrong.
You set a par for each item from what you normally use between deliveries, plus a small extra amount for a busy day. To order, you count what is there and order the difference between that and the par. Pars work for food, drinks, cleaning products and clean linen, and they should change with the seasons: a pub with a beer garden needs very different pars in July and in January.
Setting pars once and never looking at them again. Pars that are too high tie up cash and let food go out of date before it is used. Pars that are too low mean running out on a Saturday night. Check them against what you really used every few weeks, and after every menu change.
Questions
Something here that doesn’t match what you’re seeing in your own business? That is usually worth a conversation rather than another article.
A par level is the amount of an item you want to have in stock after each delivery, so you do not run out before the next one arrives. You set a par for each item from what you normally use between deliveries, plus a small extra amount for a busy day. To order, you count what is there and order the difference between that and the par. Pars work for food, drinks, cleaning products and clean linen, and they should change with the seasons: a pub with a beer garden needs very different pars in July and in January.
Setting pars once and never looking at them again. Pars that are too high tie up cash and let food go out of date before it is used. Pars that are too low mean running out on a Saturday night. Check them against what you really used every few weeks, and after every menu change.
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