1. To what extent has Starbucks caught on to a cost-effective way of reducing labor expenses in their stores (cafés)?
2. How should Starbucks managers deal with baristas who do not like the lean methods of working?
3. What would you think of Starbucks using in store coffee vending machines to save even more money?
4. What effect would the amount of store traffic at Starbucks stores have on the true cost savings derived from lean techniques?
5. If you have visited a Starbucks store recently, can you suggest how the baristas can be even more productive, thereby earning or saving the company more money? Maybe you can patronize a Starbucks café just to complete this assignment.

Starbucks Corp. built its business as the anti fast food café. The Great Recession and growing competition a few years ago forced the coffeehouse giant to see the virtues of behaving like its streamlined competitors. Under an initiative put into practice at its U.S. stores, there would be no more bending over to scoop coffee from below the counter, no more idle moments waiting for expired coffee to drain, and no more dillydallying at the pastry case.
Pushing the Starbucks’s drive is Scott Heydon, the company’s “vice president of lean thinking.” He and a 10-person “lean team” were going from region to region armed with a stopwatch and a Mr. Potato Head toy that they challenge managers to put together and rebox in less than 45 seconds.