Subway Shenanigans (#38)

An animated instructor is always better than the monotone drone we used to watch on the Peanuts show. Students from my previous classes can tell you that I am very animated during the class. During a session that I was teaching in D.C., my students were almost as animated as I was. I had skipped breakfast that day so to say I was very hungry at our lunch break would be an understatement.

A group of the students and I drove down to a nearby Subway to grab some lunch. This restaurant was in the middle of a huge industrial area and was packed. Almost every table was full and there was a long line of bodies waiting to have their sandwiches made.

Despite being extremely busy, there were only two employees working the counter. One employee was standing by the register to check customers out, and the other employee was assembling the sandwiches.

A lot of the hold-up was toasting the bread. The majority of the customers wanted to have their sandwich toasted; as did I. Since understanding the functionality of organization’s processes is kind of my thing, I took some time to study the gentleman making the sandwiches. I noticed that he would put one sandwich in the toaster, wait until it was done toasting, then finish the sandwich.

Such a waste of time! We waited in line for over 10 minutes before we even got to where it would be our turn to order. By the time my order was complete, I only had 30 minutes to eat, call my wife, and get back to the training venue.

Want to know the worst part about it? NO ONE NOTICED THE WASTED TIME.

During class we talk about what it takes to trim a processes’ cycle time. More often than not, your customer would be better satisfied if they could receive their service/product quicker.

This Subway restaurant was a perfect example of an unnecessary waste in process time.

One key topic is understanding serial and parallel events. A serial event is when one step (event) happens right after each other, i.e. the next step does not begin until the previous step is finished. Parallel events happen concurrently.

Thinking back to my lunch rendezvous at Subway, the gentleman assembling the sandwiches was working with serial events. This Subway had multiple serial events in their sandwich process: make the sandwich, toast the sandwich, add vegetables and condiments, wrap the sandwich, etc. I see these kinds of patterns all the time, most systems are dictated by serial events.

Our sandwich engineer completed one patron’s sandwich before beginning a new one. Subway is a great contender for using parallel events! Because of the automatic shutoff on the toaster, the gentleman could have started the next patron’s sandwich while the previous was toasting. While staggering each patron’s sandwich, it would have reduced process time immensely!

Do you have a “typical day” example where Lean or Six Sigma could be applied?

About Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc.

We are Certified as an Accredited Training Organization with the International Association of Six Sigma Certification (IASSC)

“The IASSC Accredited Training Organization (ATO) designation validates Six Sigma Development Solutions, Inc. has demonstrated adequate management systems, courseware with a high degree of correlation to the subject matter contained in the IASSC Bodies of Knowledge, delivery schema consistent with such content and highly qualified instructors.”

We Provide Public Lean Six Sigma Green Belt and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification Training Courses in 34 Cities across the globe.

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We Provide Onsite Lean Six Sigma Certification Training. Some of the training's we provide are: Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt, Lean Six Sigma Champions Training and Lean Certifications for Healthcare, Finance, I.T, Manufacturing, Processing, Logistics, Retail Sales and Government.

SSDSI will come to your site to train for your choice of the Lean Six Sigma Certification Levels. Onsite training is more cost effective than open enrollment training when training larger groups of team members.

Benefits of Onsite Training:

The Training is focused on Your Opportunities

SSDSI uses your opportunities in class (vs. generic examples)

You will get the experience of a seasoned Lean and Six Sigma Master Black Belt who will help mentor you while completing your Lean and Six Sigma Project

You can train up to 20 employees for one fixed cost (this cost includes course ware and the instructors travel & lodging)

Our courses are full of games, simulations, and active learning to help the adult learner

SSDSI can customize the training to meet your company’s particular training needs

Call Kevin Clay at 214-731-3176 or email at kclay@sixsigmadsi.com for more information