Time & Motion Study
A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an
organization...
Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and
noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his
shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange, but I ignored it.
However, when the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed
he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket, then I looked around the
room and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When
the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?"
"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired Andersen
Consulting, experts in efficiency, in order to revamp all our
processes. After several months of statistical analysis, they
concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil.
This represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per
table per hour. If our personnel is prepared to deal with that
contingency, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen
and save 15 man-hours per shift."
As luck would have it I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace
it with his spare spoon. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to
the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." I
was rather impressed.
I noticed that there was a very thin string hanging out of the
waiter's fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had
the same string hanging from their flies My curiosity got the
better of me and before he walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse
me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?"
"Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his voice. "Not everyone is
as observant as you. That consulting firm I mentioned also found
out that we can save time in the restroom." "How so?" "See," he
continued," by tying this string to the tip of you know what, we
can pull it out over the urinal without touching it and that way
eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in
the restroom by 76.39 percent."
"After you get it out, how do you put it back?"
"Well," he whispered, lowering his voice even further, "I don't
know about the others, but I use the spoon."
( NOW YOU KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY ) Hee Hee hee!!!