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Starbucks Coffee has taken to Lean Improvements in their outlets in a big way. Sometime ago, Wall Street Journal had an article entitled Latest Starbucks Buzzword: ‘Lean’ Japanese Techniques.
Very interesting article. Seems like Corporate America has seen the light and wisdom of eliminating Waste of any kind – Unnecessary Motion, People, Time and other Resources to get anything done!
They are putting the Lean Improvements in practice in their 11,000 or so stores first. It appears that individual store managers and employees are given the task of identifying and making improvements in their operations within that store.
Scott Heydon is the VP of Lean Thinking in Starbucks. Seems like he and a team of ten Starbucks Lean Improvement experts are going around all the stores teaching the employees how to make lean improvements. They claim that they have already eliminated a lot of wasted effort behind the counters by placing equipment and ingredients where they are needed. Very interesting examples!
The real story is that Corporate America is finally waking up to the potential of Lean and Continuous Improvement. Of course, there are the usual shrill voices about employees losing their creativity and individuality at the work place. Of course, it does not make any sense to waste people’s time, energy and resources in doing unnecessary things at the workplace. That alone is worth trying these techniques out.
Even five years ago, the US economy and Starbucks were doing so well that they did not pay attention to waste at the workplace. However, making these changes and improving things when the economy is not doing so well is a great idea! When the economy turns around and business picks up for them, they are in for large profitability!
How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world – Anne Frank
Very interesting article.
Please came and see what we have been doing in Portugal and Spain. We have several years of experience in applying Lean Management principles and practices in industry and service firms.
Thank you
Joao Paulo Pinto.
Hi there would you mind stating which blog platform you’re using? I’m planning
to start my own blog in the near future but I’m having a difficult time making a decision between BlogEngine/Wordpress/B2evolution and Drupal. The reason I ask is because your design seems different then most blogs and I’m looking for something unique.
P.S Apologies for being off-topic but I had to ask!