Founder POV: Production Items, Yield Drift, and Hidden Margin Loss
Robbie Francis explains why yield tracking on prepped items is one of the most overlooked margin controls in hospitality operations.
Founder, Hops
This article is adapted from a LinkedIn post by Robbie Francis, Founder of Hops.
Your kitchen makes hundreds of things before a single dish is ordered. Most systems still do not model those outputs properly.
This is where Production Items matter.
In Hops, a Production Item is anything your team makes in-house before it enters a finished dish. Examples include chopped onions from whole onions, or portioned brownie bites from full trays.
The Core Problem
Many systems treat prepped outputs as raw ingredients. That misses the real cost driver: yield.
Cost is not only what goes in, it is what comes out.
If a recipe needs 200g of trimmed chicken, and trimming loss is 5%, you are really consuming around 210.5g of raw product. If the system ignores that conversion, your recipe cost is understated.
Why Yield Drift Hurts Margins
Yield assumptions can change without anyone noticing.
For example, if pineapple yield drops from 600g usable fruit per unit to 500g because supplier sizing changed, dish cost increases immediately even when unit purchase price is unchanged.
Without yield tracking, that loss usually appears as unexplained GP erosion rather than visible waste.
What Operators Should Do
- Model prepped outputs as Production Items, not just ingredient lines.
- Track yield types consistently (discarded vs preserved).
- Re-measure yields quarterly and update recipes immediately.
- Standardize prep SOPs so measured yield and actual yield stay aligned.
Founder POV
“Every time kitchen yield is lower than expected, cost per portion goes up. If your system does not track that properly, margin drift stays invisible.”
Why This Matters
Yield control is one of the quietest margin levers in hospitality. Teams that maintain production-item accuracy and routine yield checks protect GP faster, with less reliance on month-end surprises.
About Robbie Francis
Robbie Francis is the Founder of Hops. He has spent years building and implementing hospitality technology with operators, focused on simplifying back-of-house operations across inventory and finance.
Follow Robbie on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/robbiefrancis
View the original LinkedIn post: Your kitchen makes 100s of things before a single dish is ordered
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