Recently, my wife and I ate dinner at a pseudo self-serve restaurant in Denver, CO. We’ve frequented this establishment before, so we knew the routine of ordering food and beverages. What was new for me, was how they’ve implemented Kanban for their staff and hosts. As the host led us to our table, I noticed a piece of PVC that had green and red electrical tape at each end stuck to the table with Velcro. As we neared the table, our host began to explain its unique use:
“This is our symbolling system used to know that status of a table. Red means the
table is taken and assigned to a customer. Lying down means our customer is done with their meal and have left our restaurant, and Green means the table is cleaned and ready for a new customer.”
Genius, I exclaimed! Who designed this system, I asked? “Our manager” the host shared.
My initial thought was, how is it that a small business can utilize such a great system for their internal purposes, which is focused on maximizing throughput by reducing downtime, can be followed without hesitation or resistance…?
My conclusion, which hasn’t been validated, is the manager of the business believes in lean!
The Kanban system they implemented is simple and efficient. The host defined the three stages of its use clearly. The reason behind their thoroughness, I believe, is that using the system makes their work simpler. While the staff didn’t affirm, I believe they use the system as it makes their work simple too. They merely need to look for a red symbol before continuing to canvas the tables with no patrons or to grab their cleaning supplies when the symbol is lying down.
When the symbol displays the green marker up, the host knows they can seat the next patrons. These markers, which are not obnoxious, have a large impact on efficiency. And, their placement is, likely not a surprise, in the same location on each table!
Being an advocate for lean and process improvement, I admire this business’ desire to implement and follow systems that impact their business while not interrupting their customers dining experience.
As implied in this post, systems that streamline processes and procedures don’t need to be complicated. However, for them to stick and make a difference, they do need to be simple to understand, implement and follow.
If you’d like to learn more about Lean and implementing simple solutions for your business, send me an email at curtis@propelconsultingservices.com.
Take care,
Curtis Crays
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