Reducing operating costs by integrating a food supply system

This paper describes the cost reduction strategy followed by a group of five Mexican restaurant enterprises located in the Monterrey metropolitan area. With this new alliance, a new integrated raw material supply system was required to take advantage of the synergies and economies of scale achieved on raw material acquisition and storage and transportation activities. To determine the new system it was required to define food suppliers, to analyze and determine the distribution scheme and the consolidated ordering and truck scheduling options. The implementation of the system is in initial stages, however current and projected results are provided.