It started off as a day basically like any other. You went into the Starbucks that you manage, helped employees open, and thought about making a dent in the mountain of paperwork left over from the previous week. But then you got an unexpected visit from a team at the corporate office. They started talking about the need to lower labor costs, improve efficiency, and increase productivity. When you asked them how they planned on doing all that, they responded, lean production.

They informed you that lean production is a management philosophy derived from Toyota that is focused on reducing waste. Whether its wasted motion, wasted time, or wasted parts, the goal of lean production is to eliminate waste so that all an organization can do its work efficiently. The executives then show you all the waste thats in your stores right nowbaristas bending over to scoop coffee from a counter below, others waiting for coffee to fully drain before starting a new pot, one worker carrying trays of pastries from storage to the display case, another spending 10 seconds per drink to read the milk label. They even show you a map showing the winding trail that a barista takes in making a single drink. It looks like a big pile of spaghetti, you think to yourself.

With lean production, the executives tell you, you can reduce the amount of motion that employees spend making drinks and the amount of time they spend reaching for stuff, reading labels, or moving from here to there. This will make your store more efficient and productive so that the same number of employees can serve more customers.

Youre intrigued by all of this, as nothing would please your supervisors more than increased revenue and lower costs. But youre also worried about how your employees will react. Many of them came to work at Starbucks because it wasnt like other fast-food chains that focus only on speed, speed, and speed. How will they feel once you tell them that theyll have to change the way they work to become faster? What if they feel like you just want them to be coffee-making robots, leaving them no time to interact with customers or experiment with new drinks? Consider these issues with three or four other students as you discuss the following questions.

Questions

1. How would an increase in efficiency and production benefit your employees?

2. How would you address employees concerns that they are being transformed into coffee-making robots?

3. What is the best way to ensure that the quality of your products does not decline with increased production speed?