Operations checklist for restaurants: the daily, weekly, and monthly rhythm

A restaurant without an operations checklist is running on memory. The manager remembers to check the ice machine on Mondays, the dishwasher forgets the deep fryer on Fridays, and the owner notices the problem on the third Thursday of the month when the ice machine dies. The checklist is how you convert memory into system — so the operation runs the same on a Tuesday in January as it does on a Friday in August.

The daily checklist

• Prep check: walk the line before service. Check mise en place, garnish, and sauce stations. 5 minutes.
• Station reset: after service, reset each station to the standard. Check that the station is clean, stocked, and ready for the next service.
• Waste log: record what was thrown away and why. This is the input for your weekly waste review.
• Ice and freezer check: walk the walk-in and ice machine. Check temperatures. Log them.
• Safety walk: check floors, equipment, and storage for hazards. 5 minutes.

The weekly review

• Food cost: pull the number from the system. Compare to target. If above target, investigate the top three variances.
• Labor cost: pull the number from payroll. Compare to target. If above target, check scheduling and hours.
• Revenue: pull the number from the POS. Compare to last week and to target.
• One improvement: pick one thing from the waste log or safety walk and fix it. One improvement per week is sustainable; five is not.
• Staff check-in: 5 minutes per team member. What is working, what is not, what do they need?

The monthly audit

• Inventory count: full count of all SKUs. Compare to par levels. Flag any item above 150% or below 50% of par.
• Par review: adjust par levels based on the month's actual usage.
• Menu review: check top five and bottom five by sales. Flag any item with declining sales for two consecutive months.
• Process audit: pick one process (prep, service, close) and walk it end to end. Note where it breaks.
• Number review: pull food cost, labor cost, and revenue for the month. Compare to target. Set targets for next month.

Making it stick

1. 1Write the checklist. Write out every task, every owner, every standard. A checklist in someone's head is not a checklist.
2. 2Run it for two weeks. Run the checklist for two weeks before you judge it. Two weeks is enough to see which tasks are working and which are dead weight.
3. 3Review and trim. After two weeks, review the checklist. Trim tasks that are not producing results. Add tasks that are missing.
4. 4Make it habit. After the trim, the checklist is the standard. Run it every day, every week, every month. Deviation is flagged, not absorbed.