When I placed a mobile order at Starbucks recently, I was told up front that it would take 17 to 20 minutes to receive my drinks.
That's a long time to wait–for coffee (or two espresso-based drinks, I should say).
But the system gave me a choice. The estimated wait time was displayed before I hit “Order.” As a customer, I could opt in or out. That level of transparency is helpful, and it's a great example of making a potential problem visible.
Still, the experience prompted a deeper question:
Why is the system so fragile in the first place?
Long Waits Are Symptoms–Not Root Causes
In Lean thinking, long wait times are rarely the problem itself. They're a symptom of deeper issues in system design, capacity planning, or response to variation.
Too often, we treat waits as random and unpreventable, when in reality they reflect underlying mismatches between capacity and demand.
I don't blame the baristas. They were working hard. I heard the manager thanking customers for their patience, including me. Everyone was doing their best.
The issue was with the system–not the people.
Peak Demand Is Predictable. Systems Should Be, Too.
Whether it's the 8 a.m. coffee rush or the Monday patient surge in a hospital, peak demand is not a surprise. It's usually a consistent, observable pattern.
Lean thinking emphasizes the importance of designing systems that can respond to this variation. Tools like:
- Heijunka (level loading) help smooth production or service over time
- Standardized work ensures staff can operate efficiently even under pressure
- Visual management makes gaps in flow or staffing instantly visible
- Built-in slack or flex capacity allows systems to absorb spikes in demand without crumbling
In healthcare, I've seen the consequences when systems don't flex:
- Pharmacy bottlenecks during discharge surges
- Delayed lab results during peak morning times
- Long ER waits because inpatient beds aren't available
In each case, the result is overburdened staff, frustrated customers or patients, and sometimes real harm.
Resilient Systems Anticipate and Adapt
The Starbucks delay could have been caused by a number of things:
- An unpredictable demand surge
- A call-off or staffing gap
- Equipment downtime
- Or a combination of factors
But the result–a fragile system–was clear. And it's not unique to coffee shops.
In Lean Hospitals, I wrote about the importance of building resilient systems in healthcare. That means:
- Cross-training staff so they can flex into different roles as needed
- Designing standard work with capacity buffers, not razor-thin margins
- Using data to forecast demand patterns and proactively adjust
- Creating escalation protocols when systems are at risk of tipping over
These principles apply just as much to retail, software, or manufacturing as they do to hospitals.
If your goal is 100% utilization of labor and equipment… you're probably suboptimizing your business.
a related post:
Transparency Helps–But It's Not the Solution
Starbucks gets credit for transparency. They told me the wait time before I ordered, rather than letting me discover it after paying.
That's a good customer experience practice. But transparency doesn't fix a broken system. It just lets you see the cracks more clearly.
The real question is:
Are you doing something with that visibility to improve?
Do Your Systems Flex or Fail?
Here are a few reflection questions you can bring back to your organization:
- Where do you routinely experience predictable peaks in demand?
- What mechanisms are in place to absorb that variation?
- Do staff have the tools, capacity, and support to respond–or are they constantly operating at the edge?
- Are delays and bottlenecks surfaced–and solved–or silently endured?
If your customers or patients are consistently waiting, the cost may not be just lost time. It could be lost business, safety risks, or staff burnout.
Closing Thought
Systems that flex don't just happen. They're designed. And they're maintained through ongoing observation, learning, and improvement.
Lean thinking gives us a framework to build these kinds of systems–ones that can meet customer needs, respect people, and deliver consistent results… even on a busy Monday morning.
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