"Share a ton" of Lean Brilliance

Does anyone reading this ever worry that they might wake up one day and suddenly realize that they finally know everything they are ever going to know in their life?  That no matter what happens going forward they will never ever learn another thing?  I'm not saying that happens very much to me either.  But every once in a while I discover such elegant brilliance hidden right under my nose that I am shocked and profoundly humbled into realizing just how little I actually know.

Such was the case for me the other day when I checked into my hotel - something I've done thousands of times over the course of my lifetime.

Those of you who know me or read my blog will appreciate the fact that, while I certainly do not know everything, I do pride myself on being able to see Value and Waste in just about any environment, process or situation.  And my mind is constantly thinking of ways to apply Lean principles just about anywhere to try and maximize Value and minimize Waste.  No surprise there.  So imagine my shock when a certain hotel chain, who shall remain nameless since I can't afford a legal department, managed to turn one of my most cherished Value Proposition upside down.

It happened like this.  I was going through the "Preferred" (a.k.a. Lean) check-in process that had actually started a few days earlier when I had conveniently made my reservation on line.  Everything was happening smoothly which meant my reservation was in order, my information was on file, and my room had even been upgraded.  Not exactly Value in the strictest definition, but certainly fairly minimal Waste by any standard.

And then I was asked if I "wanted to participate in their Green program."  I immediately assumed this meant declining the morning newspaper outside my door in exchange for fifty cents off my room charge, something I had seen in the past.  But was I in for a surprise.  The person behind the desk explained that their Green program meant that for every day that I declined room cleaning service I could choose between $5 off my bill or 500 hotel loyalty points.

I will take a second to explain something to those of you who do not spend at least 100 nights a year in hotel rooms.  For those of us who do, hotel loyalty points, like frequent flier miles, are as addictive as any drug you can think of.  If you want to fully understand what these points mean to frequent travelers I highly recommend renting the movie Up In The Air staring George Clooney.  Suffice it to say I would have probably agreed to sleep in the parking garage as part of their Parking Garage program in exchange for 500 loyalty points.

Of course I immediately agreed to sign up for any program that gave me free points.  And I quickly completed the check-in procedure and hurried away from the desk, 500 points in hand, before they changed their minds.  I had made it almost to the elevators when the enormous significance of what I had just been a part of began to sink in.  Before I walk you through what this particular hotel chain had gone through in order to come up with this idea, first consider the typical process for a hotel.  It would go something like this:

1. Guest makes a reservation
2. Guest arrives at hotel
3. Guest is assigned a room
4. Payment terms are arranged
5. Key to room is provided
6. Guest goes to room (eats, works, watches TV, sleeps, gets up, showers, etc.)
7. Guest leaves room
8. - If guest checking out them room is cleaned, towels replaced, etc. - go to Step 10
9. - If guest not checking out them room is cleaned, towels replaced, etc. - go to Step 11
10. Guest returns key and pays bill - END
11. Guest returns to room - go to Step 6

Of course like any complicated organization hotels spend the vast majority of their efforts doing non-value added activities not listed on this process.  I won't go into those here.  But I don't think too many people, including myself, would disagree that the above process is pretty much pure Value to the customer.

So just imagine the commitment and dedication to Lean thinking it must have taken for someone to say "....wait a minute, I have a question.  How much Value do guests really get from us cleaning the rooms every day while they're off at the beach or attending meetings?"  Just imagine the backlash that person would have received from hotel management, the sales and marketing people and especially the folks who carefully and lovingly clean the rooms and fold the fresh towels into those cute little animal shapes?  Who could possibly question the Value to the guests of coming back to a neatly made bed and fresh animal towels?  In fact that sounds like an idea so ridiculous only a consultant could think of it.

But wait.  Remember my reaction when offered the choice between a neatly made bed and free hotel points?  I couldn't wait to log into my account, calculate how many more points I was going to collect, and gloat over my great fortune.  Clearly if asked whether or not I was receiving more Value the answer would have been a resounding "yes!"

And it gets better.  What does the hotel get from this alternative process (minus Step 9 above)?  For starters they have to spend less time cleaning repeat rooms which leaves more time cleaning rooms to be turned over.  That means a shorter cycle time between orders and better asset utilization.  You can't really rent out a dirty room.  And in addition to that they also sink the loyalty barbs even deeper into a customer who spends tens of thousands of dollars a year on hotel rooms.  And even when I come back with my family and use the loyalty points for "free nights" you know there will be room service and restaurant charges that go straight to the hotel's top line.

The point of me telling this story is not to impress anyone with this particular process change.  I recognize that only the most rabid pursuers of Value among you will truly appreciate this example.  The purpose of me telling you this is to remind you that Opportunity is everywhere.  It's in the Waste that you can see.  But also in the Value you thought your customers could never live without.  Never ever stop asking "what if we....?"

Lean in the Kitchen

As a devoted practitioner of Lean, and more recently a Lean devoted practitioner of Lean I am constantly looking at the world around me for signs of Value and Waste.  And if there was ever any doubt as to the extent of my obsession it was never more apparent than the other day while helping my wife prepare lunch in the kitchen.

Leaving the culinary talent and creativity to my wife I am content to follow orders and carry out simple tasks.  On this particular occasion my wife asked me to “ball a couple of watermelons.”  For those of you, like me, who wouldn’t ordinarily know what this means allow me to describe the Watermelon Balling Value Map:

1. Using a large kitchen knife cut the watermelon in half
2. Using a balling tool scoop out individual melon balls and 'tap' them into a suitable container
3. When the container is full seal it properly
4. Store the container in the refrigerator

There are a few more subtleties than that but you get the general idea, both of how simple the task is, and my general level of aptitude in the kitchen.

Happy with my task I set out to 5s my workspace.  Again for those of you not familiar with watermelon balling I will give you a list of tools and materials that you will need:

• ·         Watermelon(s)
• ·         Large kitchen knife – preferably sharp
• ·         Cutting board – the one used for fruit, not the one used for cutting meat
• ·         Balling tool
• ·         Container for the melon balls with lid

It was at this point that I made my first mistake.  Eager to get going I quickly cut the first melon in half and then, without thinking, I reached for the second and cut it in half also.  Why not, I thought.  I already have the large knife in my hand.  This will save time.

As I type I can feel with shame the ‘tsk tsk’ looks coming from the Lean practitioners reading this.  For the rest of you allow me to explain my classic ‘batch and queue’ mistake.  Instead of allowing my product (melon balls) to flow through my Value Chain, I had incorrectly made the decision to run all my WIP (work in process) through Step 1 before moving on to Step 2.

“So what” I hear some of you thinking.  “It’s a kitchen not a factory.  And besides as you pointed out you saved the non-value added steps of setting down the knife and then picking it up a second time.

So picture the scene if you will.  I had a cutting board that was approximately 30cm x 50cm.  And the rule in this and most kitchens is all material must be cut on a cutting board.  As soon as I cut both water melons I now had four rather large half water melons that were dripping juice and had to therefore sit on my cutting board.  This meant there was little or no room left for me to maneuver the melons around in order to use the balling tool to scoop the melon balls and tap them into my container.  Not to mention that I had immediately introduced unnecessary waste associated with trying to keep all the melon juice on the cutting board while ensuring that the wobbly melon halves did not roll off the counter thus introducing considerable quality risk as well.

As bad as it was, it was about to get worse.

As soon as I started balling melons, as evidenced by the ‘tapping’ sound of the balling tool on the side of the glass container, my wife came by to do a schedule check on me.  And it was lucky she did.  Again I hear some of you in the crowd thinking to yourselves “...why is she micro-managing him?  He’s been trained.  He’s a good employee.  If he has a problem he will come and get her.”  Those would be the husbands, not the wives who know better.

Peering over my shoulder my wife exclaimed “what’s wrong with the water melon?!?”

Quickly going through the entire water melon balling process on which I had been trained I tried to see what she was seeing.  The balls were more or less round.  All of them were in the container.  And I had not dripped any melon juice on the counter.  So far so good I thought.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The melon is orange on the inside” she explained.

I looked closer and had to agree the inside of the melon had a decidedly orange tinge.  But since I had not been trained on quality inspection I had no idea just how much orange was acceptable.  Apparently this was too much.

My wife conducted a few more quality tests including gingerly tasting one of the melon balls I had produced.  After making a face and quickly spitting it out into the sink the decision was final; QA was shutting down the line.

So what are the lessons here?  First of all I talked about how product (melon balls) should have flowed through my process rather than filling up my work area with bulky WIP.  But more important than this, had I produced just one melon ball at a time for my customer I would have prevented all the waste associated with an entire bad production run.  Doing it my way I could have potentially balled up both melons, carefully stored them in the container and then placed them in the fridge.  In this scenario the quality issue would not have been discovered until sometime later when my customer went to serve them to her family.  By that time the root cause of the quality issue would have been virtually impossible to identify.  Were the melons in the fridge for too long?  Or was there a problem with the supplier (grocery store)?

Fortunately as I mentioned before my wife is an expert Active Manager when it comes to her kitchen.  Not only did she ensure that I clearly understood my process.  But she was intuitive enough to conduct a timely schedule check on me as soon as she heard the signal that product was being produced.  By stopping the line after only a few melon balls had been produced she was able to re-apply her resource (me) to another job that would in fact result in food appearing on the table (Value).

 Anyone see any of the other types of waste created or prevented?