Receiving procedure after duty-hours

OBJECTIVE

To establish a receiving procedure for off-duty hours

POLICY

1. It is a principle to receive goods during pre-determined office hours. However, if receiving staff are off-duty and goods are received for some reason, such goods are to be received by the security department.

PROCEDURE

1. It is a basic principle to receive goods during pre-determined office hours, and purchasing is responsible to have vendors follow this rule. If delivery is delayed due to heavy traffic or for other reasons, purchasing staff should arrange for the vendors to contact the purchasing department by phone. If goods delivered are not necessary on that day, the vendor should be instructed to deliver the goods the next day.

2. If goods must be received on that day for the hotel operations, and the receiving staff will not be present at the time of delivery, then he should contact the security office to inform them of the incoming delivery.

3. A security officer should make sure the goods are accompanied by a delivery slip.

4. If the delivered goods are not urgently required by the requesting department, the requesting department is closed for the day, or goods are delivered by mail or delivery service, the goods and the delivery slip should be kept in the receiving office.

If it is fresh food that should be refrigerated or kept frozen, a storeroom should be opened in accordance with the following procedures.

5. On the following day, receiving staff should check the goods in accordance with the standard receiving procedures and process the delivery slip.

6. If the goods are delivered directly to a requesting department, the requesting department head or his delegate should check the goods and put the date, name of the person receiving the goods, signature and the name of the department on the back of the delivery slip. Since the signature of the person receiving the goods may not clearly show who received the goods, a full name should be printed on the slip. In this case, the Security Officer or the Night Manager should observe the receiving procedure on behalf of the receiving staff.

7. The delivery slip with the goods that are received by the requesting department should be kept in the designated place in the receiving office.

8. When perishable food and/or beverages are imported in a large quantity and delivered to the hotel after normal hours due to customs clearance or traffic, receiving staffs work schedule must be changed so that the staff can receive the goods.

The main functions performed by the Storekeeper are as follows:

- Recount and physical stocking of received goods at the designated areas and preparation of related documents

- Maintenance and organization of the storeroom environment considering operational efficiency, safety, and cleanliness

- Management of an appropriate level of inventory and initiating the replenishment of stocks by issuing appropriate store purchase requisition

- Maintenance of perpetual inventory records

- Disposition of damaged, slow moving or worthless inventory and missing items

- Participation in the month-end inventory stock take

I- Types of Storerooms

Hotel stores may generally be classified as follow:

- Food store (including refrigerator and freezer)

- Beverage store (including refrigeration facility for wines)

- General store: for printing, stationary and supplies

- Operating equipment store: for maintenance parts of equipment and furniture, chemicals, etc…

II- Centralization of storeroom facilities

The location of storeroom areas should be placed as close to each other as possible for operational efficiencies and potential savings.

With respect to the location of the storeroom areas, the appropriate location of the receiving and purchasing offices should also be considered.

III- General principles for storeroom operations

Inventories must be stored in a secure and clean environment to maintain their quality, with strict temperature control and sanitation standards maintained for food and beverage.

General guidelines (to be defined by the Executive Chef) in terms of temperatures for food items are as follow:

- Food in general 10ºC to 13ºC

- Fruits & vegetables 04ºC to 07ºC

- Dairy products 01ºC to 03ºC

- Raw meats 0ºC to 02ºC

- Frozen meats -21ºC to -09ºC

- Other frozen foods -21ºC to -18ºC

In the storeroom, the section layout should be designed for operational efficiency. Good arrangement of stock space involves a logical and systematic grouping of products so that a minimum of time is required to manage requisition, take physical inventory, etc…

Delivery and issuance timing as well as a time schedule for accepting requisition forms should be determined and followed. Issuance of goods must be done on a first-in first-out basis, so that no old inventories remain in the storeroom.