Everyday Batch: Rental Car Shuttles

I know the airport isn't normally a bastion of lean, but the Albuquerque airport rental car shuttle bus stood out yeserday, in a bad way.

There were three empty, idling buses with drivers queued up to take customers back to the terminal. This was one of those shared rental car center areas. The first bus in queue was actually half full and I heard the driver tell someone in a somewhat angry tone of voice “when we're full”.

Forget cycle time or getting to the terminal faster. They were NOT going to move that bus until it was full, and they didn't. People were in a hurry, but we'll wait until the bus is full That's “efficient” right? The other buses were pretty much a fixed cost at that point, except for gas. Why not send half-full buses twice as often? Apparently cost, not customer service, is their priority. That's what you get from government, I guess, except for Iowa and a few exceptions.

Is your equipment or machinery idling because you're waiting for it to fill up? Is this necessary? Challenge your batch sizes.

Check out Luke's “Everyday Lean” series.