TL;DR: Starbucks mobile ordering fails when store processes don’t match customer expectations. Inconsistent standards–especially for Nitro Cold Brew–create confusion, delays, and frustration. Lean thinking shows the real fix isn’t harder work, but clearer standards, customer-defined quality, and better system design.…
“I’ll have a half-caff no-whip soy-milk chestnut praline latte… to-go.” Listen: Here is the episode if you want to stream the audio: In Episode 37, we wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays with some new (to us) holiday…
In Episode 27, Mark and Jamie switch things up a bit with a morning recording of the show. While we could have just started our whiskey early, instead we decided to switch to a beverage that shares much of the…
When I was on vacation, my wife and I rented an apartment in Beaune, France, instead of getting a hotel room. At left is a picture from the center of town. It was nice to be able to wash clothes…
We talk about problem solving and continuous improvement in the Lean methodology. How much time should we worry about distinguishing between the problems we CAN solve, the problems we SHOULD solve, and the problems we MUST solve? ...
I saw this at an office supply store today (but didn’t buy it). For all of the coffee-making problems I have, tipping mugs over isn’t one of them (knock on wood). This mug is advertised as having a clever mechanism…
tl;dr: A simple coffee mishap–placing a mug upside down under a Keurig–illustrates a core Lean lesson: human error is inevitable, so blaming people doesn’t help. Instead, good systems are designed to anticipate mistakes and prevent harm, reflecting Lean’s principle of…
