Improving Productivity in a Restaurant

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. When the busboy brought our
water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt
pocket. Then I looked around 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 to revamp all our processes. After several months of
analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently
dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3
spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, 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. "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 impressed. I also noticed that there was a string hanging out
of the waiter's fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters
had the same string hanging from their flies. So before he walked
off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you
have that string right there?"

"Oh, certainly!" Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so
observant. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we
can save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the tip of
you know what, we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate
the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the
restroom by 76.39 percent."

I asked, "After you get it out, how do you put it back?"

"Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others, but I use the
spoon."
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