Two for One!
May 14, 2010
A few days ago, I stopped by our local Bruegger’s Bagel shop to pick up some breakfast on my way into the office.
A big fan of process and efficiency, I couldn’t help but notice the actions of an employee I hadn’t seen there before.
He called up the first customer and asked her what she wanted. “Whole wheat, toasted, with light cream cheese,” she said. He dutifully selected the bagel from the bin, sliced it in half, and put it into the toaster – an industrial model that took the bagel halves on a conveyor to be toasted, and then, about 30 seconds later, dropped them through a chute onto the counter.
But rather than wait idly by as the bagel was toasted, he did something so simple and obvious that it was almost elegant in its correctness: he asked the next customer for her order. Since she also wanted her bagel toasted, he cut hers, and put it behind the other one on the conveyor.
No sooner had he done this than the first bagel dropped down; he applied the cream cheese, wrapped it up, and handed it to the customer. He then took the next customer’s order, cut that bagel, and put it in the toaster – just in time for the second person’s bagel to exit the toaster.
Now I know I’m easily amused, but in a week where incompetence seemed to be attacking me from every corner, this was like a ray of sunshine. By taking a simple and obvious step, he was able to nearly double the throughput of the bagel shop – preparing two bagels in the time it normally took to make just one – especially important as the morning crowd starts arriving and the lines became longer.
Are there any obvious steps you can take to streamline your own business?
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Go to Taco Bell. They too have a very efficient procwess. Very “Lean”.