I’m working from home this week and have a bit of a “kitchen kaizen” kick, as evidenced by my “lean oatmeal” post.

Last Christmas, I received a new all-in-one “grind and brew” coffee pot from Cuisinart. I’ve ground my own beans for a long time, as I’m convinced that leads to better tasting coffee, grinding them right before brewing. I used to have a separate grinder, then I’d have to dump the grounds into the filter basket, which often made quite a mess on the kitchen counter. Also, if I wanted to set the timer the night before, I’d have to let the ground beans sit there over night, losing freshness.

So, this Cuisinart is a nice concept in a way. It seemed “lean”, perhaps, in that you just put beans in the hopper and set the timer. Then, it grinds the beans and automatically dumps them into the filter basket, and then brewing the coffee. The beans and coffee and everything just flows without user intervention, once you set it up.

One problem that’s introduced — it’s a “bear” to clean this thing. Plus, it’s somewhat complex, mechanically, so if one piece of it (such as the grinder) breaks down, I’m pretty much out of luck. My conclusion — kind of lean, but not really.

I did find a “quick and easy kaizen” type improvement, I’ll give credit to “Cooks Country” magazine.

Here was my old process with this coffee maker:

Step 1) Fill pot with water

Step 2) Dump water from pot into coffee maker

A few problems with this process: for one, it was easy to spill water onto the counter (yes, I’m clumsy), and secondly it was hard to tell if I had filled the pot with exactly 4 cups or 10 cups of water, sometimes necessitating a second trip back to the faucet. At least there’s no walking involved, as I had placed the coffee pot right next to the sink (patting self on back).

But, the magazine made a nice process improvement suggestion:

Step 1) Take flexible sink faucet head/hose and fill coffee maker directly with water.

Brilliant! I’ve reduced a step from the process AND I can see exactly how much water I’m putting in so I can stop the faucet at the right time.

Is it dopey to spend this much time thinking about a coffee pot? Maybe. But, these are the types of little suggestions that you should be encouraging in your environment. Little ideas lead to the confidence to make bigger suggestions and to make bigger improvements!

About LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.

Tagged as: Everyday Lean, Restaurants