Today’s Random Cheap Shot Against Lean

by Mark Graban on February 13, 2009 · 6 comments

In-flight food: Heaven or hell on a tray? – CNN.com

Thanks to Pierre-Yves for pointing this out… I don’t understand how Lean even came up in this article about bad airline food.

Austrian catering company DO & CO has transformed the food served onboard Austrian Airlines and Turkish Airlines flights. Skytrax reported a 35 percent increase in customer satisfaction for Turkish Airlines since DO & CO was hired in 2007.

“In the last 15-20 years, the industry has focused on lean production. But we believe [airline catering] is not the job of a car manufacturer,” says Attila Dogudan, CEO of DO & CO.

Well that statement just proves that Attila doesn’t understand Lean or what Lean is all about. It’s not a method for building cars. Lean is a management system and a method for improving quality and improving processes. It’s transferable across industries including…. um, healthcare!

Maybe this lack of understanding is a reason why airline food is generally so bad? Or is he somehow blaming “Lean” as the cause of bad food?

[Seinfeld voice] Bad airplane food… what’s the deal? [/Seinfeld voice]

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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Tom February 13, 2009 at 10:52 am

[Seinfeld voice]Bashing lean without understanding it … What’s the deal?[/Seinfeld voice]

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2 Anonymous February 13, 2009 at 12:52 pm

Hmmm… The guy’s name is Attila… Sounds like a “take no prisoners” kind of a name to me. Not surprising he’d take a cheap shot wherever opportunity presents.

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3 Dan Markovitz February 13, 2009 at 3:43 pm

So sad to see this sort of ignorance passed off in the media as truth.

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4 Mark Graban February 13, 2009 at 3:47 pm

Dan, as opposed to all of the other ignorance passed off as truth in the media?

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5 rearden215 February 15, 2009 at 11:29 am

Drawing upon one of my two favorite business mentors, Ray Zalinksy (the other, of course, is Fred Taylor) quoth here somewhat:

“It’s what the American public does not know that makes them the American public.”

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6 Rick Bohan February 17, 2009 at 6:58 am

In part this is our own fault. We’ve let lean become synonymous with “cut costs”. In fact, some of us push this very idea. Haven’t we all read something recently along the lines of the following: “Now is the best time to start introducing lean practices because what better time than in a difficult economy when you most need to cut costs.”?

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