The Queen Sets the Takt Time?

Clients of mine always end up saying something like "Lean really gets into your head... it's hard to turn off" - or at least one on every project ends up saying that. That's a good thing... a way of thinking, not just a set of tools.

Lean is in my head, and it's hard to turn off even on a holiday weekend in London. I saw a few instances that made me think of "flow" during our stops along the way.

The "London Eye" is an attraction that is basically a giant Ferris wheel, but with enclosed pods (as shown in a photo I took). It's quite an engineering marvel (to me, anyway) and a wonderful view of London in the 30 minute journey. The continuous flow aspect of the London Eye is that it never stops. It just rotates very slowly and they load/unload passengers through the door during a window that's like a moving assembly line with a 45-second cycle time. It's better than the herky-jerky load/unload process of a Ferris wheel at your county fair.

Now, it actually DOES stop (for safety reasons) when there is a disabled passenger who needs more time or would be unsteady on the slowly moving pod. Prioritizing safety over all -- good call. Even when the Eye *did* stop, it was very, very smooth. You can tell that was designed in, rather than being a safety afterthought.

We also visited the fascinating Tower of London (which is really a fortress and set of palaces, more than a single tower). One of the highlights is getting to see the Crown Jewels (or least what are purported to be the real thing... one of my colleagues here thinks they are a fake set to avoid theft). No photos, since they're not allowed during your tour.

One problem a museum or attraction might have is moving people along to keep the queue going. The Crown Jewels building is "Disney-like" in it's queuing... one line outside, then lots of queues in different rooms inside, with videos and things showing along the way. As our friend Peter Abilla writes about, this is good queuing practice to help you not focus on the waiting time.

People tend to want to stop and linger and stare at the jewels, they are pretty breathtaking. They used to have "a lady standing there who would poke you if you stood too long... keep it moving" according to a local colleague. Now, they have enforced flow with a moving walkway like you would find at an airport!

In the part of the building with the most valuable jewels, the pace of viewing is dictated by the Queen (in a way) via the pace of the moving walkway. No lingering... just continuous flow of visitors.  Interesting. There are some treasures you can stand and stare at all you want.

I'm not sure if that's "customer focused" other than keeping the line moving and the queue down to a reasonable size.

I bet the walkway runs at a single speed at all times. It would be interesting to see if they could adjust the rate of the walkway to correspond with "takt time?" If there are slow times (and I'm not sure there are), the walkway could run slower and they could speed it up slightly when busy. I didn't see a "suggestion box" so I'll just have to pose that question here.

See how Lean can get stuck in your head? I don't think I'm the only Lean obsessive. To my own credit, I didn't think about Lean when I was on a beach for almost a week back in May.




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PDCA at the TSA?

ABC News: Airport Security To Be Easier for Families?

I am probably giving the Transportation Security Agency waaaaaay too much credit here, but this story made me think of the "PDCA" cycle of "Plan Do Check Act" (known as the Shewhart cycle or the Deming cycle).

The Transportation Security Administration is experimenting with checkpoint lanes designed for families to ease the pressure on parents struggling through an airport with young children.

In one of the first efforts to ease airport security for infrequent travelers, "family" lanes are being tested at the Denver and Salt Lake City airports alongside "expert" lanes for travelers who know every nuance of security screening and lanes for "casual" travelers.

The emphasis on "experimenting" is mine. That's what PDCA is all about -- a small-scale experiment to see if an idea works or not. We often do that in the Lean approach, where someone has a theory (hopefully somewhat thought out) that making a change will improve a system. Supervisors might probe and ask why that idea is a good one or the best alternative. More often than not, we want people to make at least a small-scale trial with an idea, such as this TSA policy.

The article continues:

Segregated lanes could open around the country if the tests show the concept speeds up security lines.

That's the key -- spread the concept ("Act") if tests show ("Check") that the implemented concept ("Do") works well. If not, kill the program (another form of "Act") and try something new.

I've self-segregated myself in airport lines for a long time. Given a choice, I'd alway prefer to get behind an "expert traveler" instead of a family juggling a few kids and all of their stuff.

The concept is criticized in the article by someone with a somewhat undisclosed conflict of interest. Oh well, bad reporting. Of course the guy who wants to SELL expedited security passes to frequent travelers doesn't want the TSA to improve flow -- that lessens demand for his product.

So this policy seems OK to me -- if it's proven to work. But, then again, I don't have kids. How do those of you with kids feel about the policy?

Either way, maybe you can use this as an example of PDCA when you're talking about it in your workplace. My headline would have been better if I had called it "PDSA at the TSA" (Plan Do Study Act, an alternative way of saying the same concept).

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United Adds $25 Fee for 2nd Bag

Yahoo News Story

By Mike R. Lopez:

I saw this story about United Airlines charging customers to check a SECOND bag. Not the fifth or sixth bag, but NUMBER TWO!

This reminded me of a training slide that we have in our Lean education program. There are three ways to cut costs. You can cut costs across the board by reducing all budgets a fixed percentage. This is the lazy path. You can cut costs by cutting services. This is the stupid path. Finally, you can cut waste. The smart path.

This extra fee strikes me as part of the stupid path because it cuts a core service and makes customers pay extra for something they get "free" from other airlines. According to the article, United expects it to generate $100 million in revenue and cost savings a year. Does this mean that United's tickets will be consistently cheaper than companies that do not charge a per bag tax? I highly doubt it as the article shares that this is but one small part of a larger plan to charge more for less, a clear violation of the Profit=Price-Cost rule:

Airlines want to charge more for not only checked baggage but assigned seats and other services. Investors have urged airlines to pass on the higher costs of fuel to passengers through ticket-price increases or similar surcharges.

If United is planning to save money by flying fewer people, they might be able to claim savings because I don't think their scheme will end up with them making any more revenue. We're likely to see United lose revenue to the benefit of airlines that are more responsive to real flying customers, not day traders.


********UPDATE 2/26/2008**********

It appears that US Air is going to charge $25 for a second bag.

**********************************

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Air Travel -- Results vs Process

If you're a results thinker, you should feel reassured that 2007 had zero U.S. air travel fatalities for the first time in a long time, the continuation of an apparent downward trend.

2007 a safe year for U.S. airlines

If you're a process thinker, you're probably scared to death of a disaster that seems bound to happen. Near misses have tripled, news reports highlight how air traffic controllers are fatigued and overworked (not a good condition for safety).

Another Near Collision Rattles Newark Liberty

Thankfully this most recent near miss prompted an "emergency meeting" with the FAA. I hope that leads to real root cause problem solving and prevention instead of blaming individuals. In this case, a controller is being blamed for giving the wrong tower frequency to a flight. How did that happen? Why could that have occurred? Can that be error proofed and prevented in ways other than saying "be careful?"

Fix the process folks, or the results won't continue.

Good results aren't always the indicator of a good process. You can have a bad process and get lucky for a while.

The right process brings the right results. That's true in business, in Lean, and in aviation.

This hits close to home since I flew into Newark on Wednesday. Not one of the near miss flights, but still... a bit scary.

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Airport Heijunka

DFW Airport | pegasusnews.com

DFW International Airport will distribute more than $10,000 in "DFW Bucks" on December 20 and 21 to encourage families to check in during off-peak times to avoid the Christmas checkpoint crunch, offering children 12 and under a coupon to eat free at any of the restaurants in the Airport's five terminals.

The idea is to "level load" the airport security lines, by encouraging families to come between 12 and 2. It's easier for families to get through during non-peak times (plus it doesn't clog the lines up as bad for the rest of us). My wife and I are trying to help level load by traveling on Christmas Day afternoon (a day we assume isn't as busy as the next few will be).

The DFW example seems like a good case of "demand shaping," trying to level out demand for a product or service, rather than just taking it as it comes. In the Lean approach, "heijunka," or level loading, can apply to leveling demand (an ideal condition) or leveling production (which requires inventory).

Best wishes to everyone for the holidays!

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When Systemic Problems Don't Get Solved

This past week, I stumbled through a systemic problem that might not ever be solved, namely the National Car Rental service at Terminal 3 of the Toronto Pearson International Airport.

I say a "systemic" problem, because I've seen the same frustrations (for customers and employees) twice in a month now. A co-worker reports "Oh yeah, it's always a mess there, same problems, I quit using them." The normal routine with car rental involves minimal delay, especially as a frequent renter. If you even have to go to the counter (which you do in Toronto), it's a quick handoff of keys and off you go to your car.

Not in Toronto. Twice now, they haven't had cars ready for the customers. So, there's the line to get checked in and the separate line for people who waited up to 30 minutes to actually get a car because nothing was ready.

When I finally got a car (after about 30 minutes of the "waste of waiting"), I did my best to put on my "why?" hat and I asked the one employee, "why aren't there enough cars available?" (rather than just giving him a hard time or yelling).

Well, the employee went off on a mini-rant directed at "corporate," how the local outlet has been complaining about being understaffed and "corporate won't do anything about it." He encouraged me to complain through National customer service since our concerns (as customer and employee) were very much aligned.

Part of me wanted to ask, "what about improving your process so you don't need as much labor?" but I didn't have time for that... off I went. I'll assume they do need more labor. So why doesn't a problem like that get fixed? Is National waiting for all of their customers to go away? That will solve the labor crunch, eh?

I think one lesson learned is to ask why, even if you're frustrated and cranky about the situation. Don't assume that the folks at the front lines of customer service have much, if any, influence over the corporate policies that cause frustration for everyone.

If this problem has been going on for months (according to my colleague), are they unwilling to fix the problem or unable to fix it? I'm not sure which is worse...

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It's Not That We're Worse...

The Middle Seat - WSJ.com

Quick story here, not so much about Lean but about customer service and general incompetence. The WSJ shares data about how complaints about the Transportation Security Administration have jumped:

"Complaints to the TSA about security courtesy, procedures, processing time and personal property fell sharply during the first five months of the year, but began climbing in June, with a 9.2% jump in the total number of complaints, compared with June 2006. By August, total service complaints were 88.1% higher than a year earlier, and September, the most recent month reported by the government, saw a 71.4% increase in TSA complaints."

That might seem to be a clear indicator that service has gotten really bad. Not so, says the TSA leadership. You see, in the past they weren't even able to count or track all complaints properly... so instead of complaints going up, what you really have is just better tracking. So hurray for the TSA?

"The TSA concedes it was missing and underreporting complaints in the past, with travelers either frustrated at getting busy signals on phone lines (1-866-289-9673) and never recording a complaint, or emails (TSA-ContactCenter@dhs.gov) not being properly handled. The numbers suggest the TSA was missing a very large chunk of complaints."

The TSA has a new "customer service" center with better software for tracking these problems and complaints. That's not really getting to the root cause of the poor attitudes and the cause of the complaints, is it?

I guess there is a parallel to manufacturing, if your scrap or defect rate went up, only because you weren't inspecting products at the end of the line or tracking defects before? Maybe the surest path to "zero defects" or Six Sigma quality levels is to not count or track it!!! :-)

Heijunka for Airport Security?

TSA considers reservations for airport security - USATODAY.com

I'm not normally a fan of the TSA, but this proposal actually seems somewhat reasonable and reminds me of the Lean concept of "heijunka," or level loading of a process.

A steady stream of travelers at checkpoints throughout a day also would ease scheduling problems for security screeners caused by the large rushes of people followed by long lulls.

This is what we see in many workplaces -- really busy times where employees are overburdened and customers have to suffer through waits. Being really busy can impact quality, when employees feel pressured to cut corners to work down their backlog (and that can have really bad consequences if screeners aren't given time to be careful).

I travel a lot on Monday mornings and Thursday afternoons -- peak travel times. Can you convince people to show up earlier (or later) if they can be guaranteed to fly through security?

Leveling the process should benefit everyone, but there's not total agreement on this:

Caleb Tiller of the National Business Travel Association said, "It's not entirely clear why we need a reservation system to deal with peak times rather than adding TSA staff and (checkpoint) lanes."

So money grows on trees? It's better to have a creative solution than spending money, right?

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Bad Systems: TSA at DFW Terminal A

I'm going to try to tie this into Lean, or so I think. I had the most mind-numbing experience at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (my home airport, Terminal A, near gate A35, last Monday night (Labor Day).

As I approached the private "security" worker at the podium before the screening, I was starting to hand her my boarding pass and ID, as I've done far too many times this year at different airports, it's always the same drill. You know, they take your boarding pass and scribble five times on it or play a game of Sudoku on it before letting you pass on. This time, the contractor didn't want any of that, she just mumbled something about "mmmbmbmbm laptop.... mmmmbmbm... belt." I know the drill.

I got a few steps closer to the TSA and it hit me -- she hadn't checked my ID and boarding pass. I told the TSA employee this, thinking there was maybe some security threat from the laxness, and the TSA guy mumbled something about "what do you expect?" and took only the most cursory glance at my ID and boarding pass.

At this point, I thought I could A) just move on and not risk saying something that would get me strip searched or arrested or B) say something. Having plenty of time before my flight, I chose door B, I asked to talk to a supervisor. I explained what had happened, basically that NOBODY had checked my ID. The supervisor told me that TSA and/or the airport had officially deemed the contractors to be ineffective at checking ID's, since boarding passes and ID's are too easy to fake and the contractors didn't know what they were looking for. Nice huh? And this isn't the case at other airports?

I guessing that the problem with the contractors might be at least partially a training issue.

The TSA supervisor said they were in the process of "phasing in" the new approach, where the TSA employees would now be checking ID's at that terminal, rather than the contractors. "Um, shouldn't you transition in before the contractors transition out?," I asked the supervisor. He didn't really have anything constructive to say, other than apologizing, so I didn't push the discussion any more. That's just horrible management and system design (or lack thereof). You don't pull the old person off the job before the new process and training are in place. Our government in action. Or, government inaction.

In part 2 of this post, I'll describe my phone call to the TSA asking about this situation and their response.

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"lean" is not "Lean"

The Middle Seat - WSJ.com:

Here's an example of the every day use of the word "lean" that, unfortunately, means just about the exact opposite of what we mean with "Lean Manufacturing" or the Toyota Production System:

"Just like airport delays, bumped passengers and other travel problems this year, the British Airways baggage system shows how airlines have made operations so lean and taxed infrastructure so fully that problems compound exponentially for customers."

In this article about BAA losing so many suitcases and giving generally horrible service, the word "lean" really means that they are cut so close to the bone that they're ineffective.

Lean is about effectiveness, not having "lean staff" (not enough people) or "lean budgets" (not enough money).

That every day use is one of the problems with the term "Lean," isn't it?

Smaller Airline Batches Hurt the System?

Small Jets, More Trips Worsen Airport Delays - AOL Money & Finance

Here's a free version of an article that originally appeared in the WSJ last week. Going back to the book Lean Thinking, Womack and Jones talked about their desire for more "point to point" air travel in small planes, rather than huge planes (like the Airbus A380) going through "hub and spoke" systems, that they compared to "batch and queue" manufacturing systems (very un-Lean). There has even been development of "air taxi" services that would take this concept to more of an extreme (I hope they'd be more comfortable than your typical RJ).

But, even with the increased use of Regional Jets, there are strains on airport infrastructure and the Air Traffic Control system. Granted, some of this is due to the use of RJ's on hub and spoke routes, giving more flight options (smaller planes, higher frequency), compared to larger batches (larger planes, fewer flights per day). The airlines say they're following customer demand to have more flights, but some experts are calling for "bigger batches."

"Promoting larger aircraft is the only means to increase passenger access to La Guardia," said the FAA proposal.

Do we need bigger batches or do we need to fix the system so we can accommodate smaller batches? Which Lean principles would you apply? Smaller batches seems Lean, but you can't exceed airport capacity (not Lean).

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Hotel Housekeeping Overprocessing

I'll try to lighten things back up a bit. I may have written about this before, but as a frequently traveling consultant, the hotel room is my "gemba" many evenings, so it's hard not to find waste. I actually gave some feedback to the management at my current hotel, so I'll copy and paste and post it here (somewhat edited). Do you think there's a little waste of "overprocessing" here? Bonus points if you can guess the chain from my possibly subtle clue.

Dear Local Management of Franchised Large Mid-Priced Chain Hotel: I appreciate the clean and comfortable rooms at your hotel, as a frequent guest at your establishment. I have some feedback and suggestions for your housekeeping staff that would improve my customer experience. The ideas might also save you money!

1. Please ask your housekeeping staff to not turn down the thermostat to 65 during the day when they clean. I normally have it set at 72 and it is neither pleasant nor comfortable to return from work to an icebox. The last two nights, I turned the temperature up and the heat kicked in. This overcooling and unnecessary heating is costing you $$.
   
   
2. I do not need a new fresh bar of soap every day. The one that I started using this morning would have been acceptable tomorrow morning, there was still plenty left! I hope you are not replacing the ink pen on the desk (there's still some ink left) or the refrigerator (there's some non-freon refrigerant left) every day.
   
   
3. When I take the extra pillows out of the storage bag in the closet, please do not put them back in the closet, in the bag, until I check out - they can remain on the bed. This is wasted effort for your staff and I don't enjoy repeating the same motion of taking the pillows back out each evening.
   
   
4. If I've placed your book and promotional materials on the lower shelf of the nightstand, they do not have to be placed back in the middle of the desk, where I have to again move them so I can work.
   

I think it would be "smart" to avoid these extra costs and irritations to your frequent guests. Thanks for listening to my feedback, as did your front desk manager when I talked to her in person.

--------------

I didn't complain about it, but the in-room refrigerator froze the soda and leftovers I had in there, frozen solid. More overprocessing!! :-)

I know these are, relatively speaking, nice problems to have. I have a great job, a loving family, and a roof over my head (surrounded by freezing air when it's 102 outside). So please take my bitching with a grain of gourmet salt.

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You Need Quantity AND Quality

Mishandling Has Spiked Since Liquid Ban Reduced Carry-Ons - washingtonpost.com

With the new security rules in August, the number of checked bags increased suddenly (including my own, until I changed my process to include leaving a bag of toiletries at the hotel).

You know it's not a robust process when quality suffers with a demand/volume increase. Not that any of us expected the aviation industry to have robust processes....

The rate of mishandled bags was the highest since December 2004, rising to 8.08 per 1,000 passengers in August from 6.5 in July, according to the report, which can be found at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/ .

I assume that's a statistically significant increase and not just part of the common cause variation. Even if you look at the government report, they only compare August 2005 to August 2006. I could dig into previous months' reports, but it's late. If someone could provide an SPC chart, I'd appreciate it. Maybe tomorrow...

With lean, we talk about "heijunka" or level loading as an ideal. We also somehow preach about the idea of "flexibility." Your processes need to be robust enough so that, when demand goes up or down, you can react accordingly. Increasing demand means, usually, new people and the performance of those new people is a reflection of your processes, training, supervision, etc.

OK, So It's Not the "Lean Travel" Blog

I know not everybody travels, so y'all might not be concerned about attempts to see lean (or NON lean) practices in the travel world. But, I travel almost weekly, so this is one "gemba" I see quite a bit. One reason I like highlighting lean in the travel world is that it's something we can all experience and it forces us to look at a process outside of our normal work environment. I will do one more travel post this week, about hotel cleaning quality, staffing, and management attitudes -- then maybe I'll give the travel thing a rest.

Good System Design

I received an email from blog reader Walt, who pointed out some nice system design at the Atlanta airport long-term parking. Are there "lean" lessons here? Yes, if you consider not wasting your customers' time to be lean (ala Lean Solutions, by Womack and Jones) and if you consider not wasting gas and time driving around looking for a parking spot to be lean. It's nice to appreciate good system design when you see it -- when things "just work" in a way that's a bit surprisingly and delightful.

Walt's email:

I recently traveled out of Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, and was extremely impressed with their long-term parking process.

Upon entering the long-term parking area, they directed me to the only row that they were filling at that time. I thought that it was odd that only one row was open until I realized that they were filling (essentially "topping off") partially-filled rows, one row at a time. All of the rows to the north of me were completely full and all of the rows to the south of me were partially full. They eliminated the need for customers to drive all over the lot to search for a vacant spot.

There was a small queue of shuttle-buses waiting, with one bus ready to pick you as you exited your car. They eliminated the need to walk to, and wait at, a central area to be picked up.

When you entered the shuttle bus, they gave you a slip of paper with your aisle number written on it so that you could find your car easier when you returned. Poka yoke!!!

When I returned to ATL four days later, I pulled out my car location slip and gave it to the driver when I was picked up at the terminal. He sorted all of the slips and dropped us off at our car in the best order for reducing wait.

I watched the shuttle bus after all of the travelers were let off, and the bus drove over to the pick-up queue to get ready to get more travelers. This reduced the distance that the buses drove empty.

Someone did a great job in eliminating a lot of waste at Atlanta Hartsfield.

Not Balancing Cycle to Takt: Poor Management

By comparison, I was the vicitim of a horribly designed system, trying to return my car at National's O'Hare location. Yes, I'm back to using National after my last bad experience with them. I don't learn quickly, I suppose.

I pulled into the return lot at a very peak, busy time -- 4:30 PM on a Thursday afternoon. It was strange, I didn't see any National employees working in the lot, checking cars back in. I waited and looked, more cars kept pulling in. About 20 cars arrived and, you can see in the picture, customers are standing around and waiting. Since I was at the "front" of the queue, a few customers even came to me and asked "where are the employees?"

I waited a good 15 minutes and finally saw an employee. She was bouncing around the lot in a seemingly random order (certainly not First-In-First-Out), being expedited by customers who were late and screaming at her. Now this single employee, she was working very hard (and probably wasn't being treated well).

But that's management's fault for putting her in that position. They clearly didn't match their capacity (# of employees) with "takt time" (or the rate of customers arriving at that peak time). When the employee got to me, I asked her (very nicely), "Are you the only one working right now?"

She snapped at me, "Well, that's NOT MY FAULT." I could understand her frustration, so I didn't take it personally. It certainly wasn't her fault. If she knew me, she'd know I wasn't pointing blame at her, but I'm sure not everyone was so understanding.

National O'Hare is just sorely mismanaged, that's the only conclusion I can draw. A basic notion such as "have enough employees to serve your customers" is basic business, I don't know if I'd even call it a "lean" concept.

Luggage Batching and Risk of Errors

Last thing for this post -- when I got inside, I had to check my bag (something I would have never done before the new travel rules). It makes me VERY uncomfortable to not put my bag on a moving conveyor. Look at the WIP and batching that occurs before the security screening. I'm always thankful when my bag makes it onto the flight on time, considering the opportunities for delays with this awful process. Again, a case of bad system design. The security screening devices can't keep up at peak busy times (because they're expensive machines and traveler demand is not level loaded). I certainly hope there's a good FIFO and error proofing process to make sure some bags don't "fall through the cracks" missing their flights!

Some Poor Problem Solving

More travel adventures... I woke up this morning and got into the shower. I was surprised that the soap and shampoo that I used Monday morning was gone (that's waste, throwing out half used toiletries). I stepped out of the shower -- nothing on the counter. Ugh.

So, I complained a the front desk on my way to work. They apologized.

I got back to my room after work and found, yes, soap and shampoo. Not only that, but DOUBLE. I guess "on average," I had one bar of soap in my room, eh? Zero bars one day, two bars the next.

I didn't need DOUBLE. They are cleaning my room tomorrow, as they do every day. How often are problems "solved" with an overreaction? If bad service is given, does your organization "respond" by doing twice as much or even doing more than what's needed? Why not just perform consistently every day?

I wonder what steps happened between me complaining at the front desk and the time my room was cleaned. Did someone get yelled at? Was there a "root cause" problem solving effort? Is there a standard work checklist for cleaning a room? I bet someone just got yelled at. Too bad.

Update 9/13/06: I got a number of comments, including one from someone who is probably in the hotel industry. To be clear -- I believe this is a MANAGEMENT problem. Sure, every individual who cleans a room is responsible, but if management pushes SPEED over quality, if the people cleaning rooms have an unreasonable time standard or quota, then that's management's fault when small details get missed.

Some Misguided Error Proofing?

Hilton hotels introduced a new standardized alarm clock that seems to be in all Hilton properties now (including where I am in Midland TX right now). The clock has some nice features, such as pre-programmed music buttons, so if you want "News", you just press the button and you don't need to know what AM or FM channel you're tuning to. Nice example of simplification and standardization. Once I learn how to use the Hilton clock, it's consistent at each Hilton. Why it's complicated to set the time on any alarm clock is a whole different discussion.

But, I have one beef -- it's impossible to set the time on the clock. You can set the alarm, but you can't set the time. I've never noticed this because the time has never been wrong I guess. The clock was off (see picture, the timestamp is 11 PM) and I couldn't figure out how to change it.

I called the front desk and was told that you can't set the time as a guest. Maintenance has to do it. Ugh. It seems like a case where they've "error proofed" the clock, in a way, but they've taken away functionality. Was that an error worth "proofing"??

How often does this happen with software, products, or in industrial settings? Is this a fine line between error proofing and being overly cautious in protecting people from themselves?

Wrong Visual Controls and a Lack of Problem Solving

My travel adventures continued... lack of lean concepts abound. The only highlight in my travel was that former Cowboy great and Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach was on my flight. We landed in the K gate area of OHare (American Airlines). I folllowed the signs for "Shuttle Bus Center" figuring that's where I would find the shuttle for National rental car.

After a long walk, I got out into the hot muggy 95-degree day and stood under this sign, clearly saying "Rental Car Shuttle" (see the sun-drenched picture to the left). The sign is a "visual control", in lean parlance. It seemed obvious to me as a visitor. That's a good test of lean visual controls -- are they obvious and can they be followed by an outsider?

Well, it seemed obvious until 5 minutes went by and no rental car bus came by. I don't mean that the National bus didn't make an appearance, but NOBODY's shuttle came (Avis, Hertz, etc.) This seemed odd for a busy airport, especially O'Hare at 4:30 PM.

I called National's "customer service" number that's on my Emerald Aisle card. I explained the situation and the phone rep and she said, I guess trying to make a joke, "Maybe they all went on strike while you were standing there." Since she was unfunny and unhelpful, I eventually got the local National office on the phone, where it got interesting.

I told her where I was standing, by the airport and across from the Hilton, and how no buses were going by. She says, "You're standing in the wrong spot."

Hmmm. Nice visual controls. I told her I was under a sign that clearly said "Rental Car Shuttle" and she got very argumentative and yelled "It's not OUR fault that the sign is there, other companies put it there, the buses don't come down there."

I argued that yes it WAS their fault, that other customers were standing here confused like me.... and she hung up!

So what are the lessons here other than National's customer service being useless? I think of the idea of lean problem solving... what problems are happening every day and are they being fixed? I'd have to think that SOMEBODY is being confused by the signs every day and that SOMEBODY must be complaining to National (or to the airport) each and every day. Why haven't they fixed it yet? I guess once the customer has stopped complaining, the problem is "solved" at a very superficial level? I guess National (or at least the people at O'Hare) don't care if their customers have an awful experience? The bus, when I did find it, was VERY full, so I guess business is good.

I called back to National's customer service and told them that my next 9 weeks in Illinois were going to include cars rented through Avis. What problems are plaguing YOUR customers each and every day? Are complaints being turned into change and improvements?

Rental Car Return Waste

I observed this at a mid-size city airport yesterday. I think it goes to show that lean concepts aren't common sense and it illustrates how something simple could dramatically improve a customer experience.

At this airport, National car rental's return lane was like most airports, with good signs, telling you to turn here and pull ahead here. It seems that every time I've rented in the past few years, an employee is always there to greet you with a portable bar code reader and printer, you get your receipt right there. I had forgotten the days when you had to walk back to a counter.

But yesterday, there was no employee there to greet returning cars. The car that pulled ahead of me had three guys who all looked confused. After a minute, they walked toward the terminal. I asked an employee who was driving by "how do you return the car here?" "You have to record your mileage and walk to the booth."

So, lean question #1: How hard would it be to have a sign that says that? Wouldn't you expect many customers pulling up to have that same question?

As I was making my 3 minute walk to the booth (it was quite a ways away), here comes the driver of the car that was ahead of me stomping back to his car. I don't think he got the memo about "record your mileage", so he had to walk back and check. There's nothing more irritating than a delay when maybe he was running late for his flight.

Lean question #2: How many times do you, as an employee, have to see a guy stomping back to his car and then coming back and growling at you with the mileage before you say "maybe we should put up a sign that says "record your mileage"??

A simple sign. Thinking through your customer experience. Reacting to problems and actually fixing root causes. It's too bad that these concepts are sometimes less common than you might like.

Think about your own processes, your internal and external customers. Are "irritations" captured as improvement opportunities? Or, do you face the same problems day in and day out??

Everyday Lean: Hotels.com

I saw this while researching a vacation. This website has given the user the time saving option of "most popular cities" to avoid you having to type the city name. When asking people for data (customers, suppliers, employees), do you put thought into minimizing their time or effort?

I thought this was a nice example of "Everyday Lean" (although I'm not eligible for the contest).

Materials 5S at a Hotel

As I was walking past a housekeeping storage room at a hotel, I couldn't help but notice that the storage locations were marked on the shelves (click on the photo for a larger view).

As you can see in the picture, they labeled not only "what" goes where, but "how many", which is a key point for 5S-ing stock shelves and locations.

One thing they didn't do is mark boundaries of where those towels are supposed to go (with tape lines, etc.). But still, it's better than many factories I've seen that just mark "what" while ignoring the "how many."