Starbucks provides a familiar, real-world case study in how system design shapes customer experience, employee frustration, and operational performance. These posts use Starbucks examples—especially mobile ordering, demand spikes, and in-store workflows—to explore Lean principles in everyday service environments.
Rather than blaming baristas or technology, this archive focuses on process consistency, visual management, demand management, and leadership decisions that either support or undermine good service. Starbucks becomes a lens for understanding how small design choices ripple into delays, confusion, and dissatisfaction—or smoother flow and better experiences.
The lessons here apply far beyond coffee: to healthcare, hospitality, retail, and any organization trying to balance speed, quality, and human connection at scale.
While I’d be the first to admit that my writing is not perfect and I certainly need a copy editor for my books, I have a bit of a reputation as a “grammar cop” amongst co-workers in previous jobs. I…
I’ve recently been reading an enjoyable book by Peter Sims, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries. The practice of Kaizen, of course, brings lots of small improvements. But, it’s often surprising how breakthrough ideas with a really…
Our Kaizen Institute guide, Brad Schmidt (pictured above) talked to us on Monday about standardized work. He said, of the practice at Toyota, that it’s “voluntary standardization.” This is revolutionary thinking, I believe, for much of the Lean community and…
Following up on my notes from Day 1, here are some notes and key points from Day 2 of the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit. It was great to meet and get reacquainted with so many blog and book readers. It’s…
One of the variations of my acronym L.A.M.E. is “Lean As Misguidedly Explained,” and I recently ran across two fresh instances of this (and, for once, neither is from the Wall Street Journal!). One example is a news writer who…
It’s nowhere near as important as yesterday’s topic of employee and patient safety, but my last two days of using the new Mac OS X 10.7 “Lion” operating system made me think of some classic change management challenges that might…
I really had a great learning experience at last week’s LEI Lean Transformation Summit that was held here in Dallas. The event sold out six weeks in advance, so a lot of regular attendees got frozen out, unfortunately. All of…
Here’s some weekend fun leading into the holiday season… I received a marketing email today from Starbucks that included a phrase that would jump out at any Lean thinker. Who knows how broadly the Starbucks Lean education efforts have gotten…
I was traveling yesterday, so I read a number of blog posts that I kept open in my browser for my flight. I wrote an unusually high number of blog comments on other sites yesterday, so it ended up feeling…
For a more traditional approach to this topic, check out this alternative post, “Real Lean at Starbucks or Tayloristic Industrial Engineering?“. Below is the more creative approach to addressing yesterday’s WSJ article about Lean at Starbucks. Read the WSJ article…
Once again, the WSJ has written about Lean at Starbucks (see my last post “Controversy over New Standardized Work at Some Starbucks Stores“) in Wednesday’s paper. The newest article is called “At Starbucks, Baristas Told No More Than Two Drinks“,…
As a regular Starbucks customer (especially so when I lived in Boston, a few stories directly above a Starbucks store), I try to follow the company closely, including reading the “Starbucks Gossip” blog from time to time. I’ve posted before…
