I’m updating our crew development plan and need a course that sharpens yield control and demand forecasting for a busy retail counter. We target under 2.5% shrink, but still stock out of 12-oz sirloins by 6 pm Fridays — any programs that teach cut tests, trim tracking, and POS-driven production planning that moved the needle and kept your regulars happy?
Texas A&M Meat Science’s Beef 101 gave our crew solid cut-test and trim tracking reps, then we ran a two-Friday ‘sirloin focus’: ‘weigh trim by SKU, pull POS every 30 minutes,’ and pre-set 70% of expected 4–7 pm demand by 3 pm while holding 30% for top-ups — like donuts, don’t set them all out at once. If your POS can’t do hourly, export and pivot in a sheet; what system are you on?
But i got the most mileage from UW–Madison’s Meat Cutting School; we lifted their yield log and tied it to a 15‑minute POS forecast from 3–7 pm, which ended the “6 pm Fridays” 12‑oz sirloin outs while keeping shrink at 2.1%. The single change was locking a cut spec and logging net yield by subprimal for a week, then shifting orders toward more center‑cut tops based on what trimmed best. If you’re not tagging trim to a dedicated scale code yet, give it a week — what POS are you on?
Agree with @vthompson67 on tying logs to POS — NAMI’s Center of the Plate tightened our yield math, then we added a simple ‘hourly par + safety pack’ for 12‑oz sirloins: set pars from the last six Fridays and keep a 4‑steak vac‑sealed backup you only crack if the case dips… COP leans foodservice, but it translates fine with that tweak. Want the par worksheet I use?