Last weekend I took a minor holiday to the german capital, Berlin. On sunday morning I went out to find a place that served breakfast and I came by a nice litte bistro. I was with a small group of friends, so we ordered breakfast based on personal preferences. I had scrambled eggs, some had coffee, bread and croissants, and so on. After taking our orders the waitress went inside (we were sitting outside) for a few minutes. Then she came back -- or so I thought. She went by us, turned left, and entered the bakery that was located pretty much right next to the bistro. A few moments later she came out with a plastic bag that seemed to hold exactly what we ordered. She got back inside the bistro again, and a couple of minutes later our breakfast was served.

Reflecting on what I just saw, I concluded the following. Right after taking our orders she went inside and started on the scrambled eggs. At that time she probably notified the bakery on exactly what items to prepare for here. Afterwards she went out and got the bread that we had ordered, but no more.

Lesson learned. Keeping trusted key suppliers close, allows you to have very low inventory of the most "problematic" items. For instance freshly baked bread, which decays very fast, and is not suited for selling after a matter of hours. Even if you pay a higher price for picking up bread in smaller batches, the bakery -- not you -- will end up with the bread that can no longer be sold, and thus you will rarely have to throw out food. The strategy also allows you to spend the scarce space you might have in your bistro, on more value adding abilities, like setting up a table with a blender and serve smoothies!

The bakery is probably happy with the setup, as their incomming orders are now levelled out on the entire day, instead of having to prepare big batches in the morning. Furthermore the customers are probably more happy as the average time from bread leaving the oven until it is served, is now shortened, resulting in bread that is still slightly warm, and tastes better.