Tradeshow SNAFU
We recently exhibited at a tradeshow. We had to send our materials in advance and pay several hundred dollars to have them delivered to our booth. I got confirmations that all boxes had been received.
When I got to booth to set up...no boxes.
I spoke to the tradeshow organizers. They made a note and said that the advance delivery truck had been delayed.
I set up the booth and went to my hotel.
The next morning...still no boxes.
They asked who I talked to the day before.
Silly: It doesn't matter who I talked to; their system lost my boxes.
Three or four people later, one guy showed up and said they'd been delivered to the registration booth because they weren't in their system.
Here's the really silly part. We had to print labels and put them on our boxes with the booth number on it. When they arrived, the system had a glitch so they marked our boxes as UNKNOWN, even though our booth number was on the label they had us put on each box.
The UNK was written in marker. The label was on the side of all boxes. See below.
Here's my point: If you're going to make customers jump through hoops, make sure you use your own hoop.
Lean Banking
I took my mother to open a CD at Washington Mutual.
She was transferring money from a WaMu account to the CD and adding a check from WaMu.
It took 45 minutes. That's ridiculous.
We had to fill out transfer and deposit slips.
The rep couldn't process the transaction at his desk. He had to go to one of the other terminals.
It was perhaps the slowest automated process I've ever seen.
And it's not just WaMu. I've had similar experiences at other banks.
The only place we've ever walked in and out in under 10 minutes is World Savings.
Here's my point, brick-and-mortar banking needs to wake up to the economies of speed.
Lean Restrooms
I rarely think about the role that architecture plays in Lean's principles about economy of movement until I find a radical departure.
As a man, when I go into a public restroom, I have two choices: urinal or toilet. Because urinals get higher traffic than toilets, the urinals are usually closer to the entrance than toilets.
Not so a Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. I walked into one of the men's restrooms on the main concourse and was surprised to find first a half dozen toilets and then urinals all of the way at the back. Admittedly, I only had to walk an extra 20 feet or so to get past the toilets, but if you multiply that times hundreds of travelers per day times 365 days a year, it's the equivalent of walking from Washington DC to Ontario, Canada.
I've heard people say: "It's good exercise."
I say: If you want your employees to exercise, put in a gym.
Lean Principle: Unnecessary Walking is Waste.
I recently worked with an architectural firm that was bidding on the design and construction of two new rural hospitals. We spent a lot of time with Post-it notes trying many different configurations to minimize patient and clinician travel. We had to rethink many of the long held beliefs about hospital design and patient care. (P.S. They won the contract.)
Here's my point:
Redesign your workspaces to eliminate unnecessary movement.
It will save you time, money, mistakes and injuries.
Jay Arthur, the KnowWareâ Man, works with companies that want to fire up their profits using Lean Six Sigma. He is the author of Lean Six Sigma DeMYSTiFieD (McGraw Hill 2007) and the QI Macros SPC Software for Excel. Instead of training Black Belts and Green Belts, Jay wants you to develop Money Belts--people who can find and plug the leaks in your cash flow.
Pain Shot Takes the Life of Denver Businesswoman
According to the Rocky Mountain News, Leslie Fishbein, owner of Kacey Fine Furniture, had a massive heart attack after receiving "an injection to relieve pain" from her private physician.
The 1999 study, "To Err is Human", found that one person out of every 100 admitted to a hospital would die due to a medical mistake. This makes healthcare the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. There were 33 million admissions in 1999; you do the math.
The study also admits that most medical care occurs outside of the hospital and that preventable deaths were hard to track.
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (www.ihi.org) has been working on finding and eliminating the root causes of preventable deaths in over 3,000 U.S. hospitals. Many protocols, some as simple as giving a heart attack victim an aspirin at arrival, are saving lives.
Isn't it time to extend that healthcare prescription to the non-hospital providers?
Jay Arthur, the KnowWareâ Man, works with companies that want to fire up their profits using Lean Six Sigma. He is the author of Lean Six Sigma DeMYSTiFieD (McGraw Hill 2007) and the QI Macros SPC Software for Excel. Instead of training Black Belts and Green Belts, Jay wants you to develop Money Belts--people who can find and plug the leaks in your cash flow.
Trying to convince your organization to use the QI Macros SPC Software for Excel?
We can help with 30-day trial CDs (includes $80 worth of Lean Six Sigma ebooks), PowerPoint presentations or Quick Reference Cards. To order for U.S. delivery at no charge, click here.
Or send me an email about what we can develop to meet your needs.
Sign up for our email courses:
Lean Six Sigma Demystified: mailto:six-sigma-ezine@aweber.com
QI Macros: mailto:qimacros@aweber.com
Software for Your Mind: mailto:knowware@aweber.com
mailto:knowwareman@mindspring.com
http://www.qimacros.com
2253 S. Oneida St, Ste 3D
Denver, CO 80224
303-756-9144 (888) 468-1537
