A hilarious introduction to Lean Manufacturing

by Carlo Scodanibbio http://www.scodanibbio.com

Imagine going to a restaurant for dinner, not knowing that this particular restaurant is geared for "batch production", in other words that the kitchen is organised to prepare food "by the lot".
What would happen is something as follows:
Waiter (after you have been snooping through the Menu for 5 minutes): ".....Well, have you decided, Sir?"
Customer: "Yes, I fancy your Tortellini Alfredo as a starter, and then...."
Waiter (interrupting): "I am sorry, Sir, but tonight we do not have Tortellini, we only have Spaghetti ready - however, if you are prepared to wait for a while, until some other customers pop in and order Tortellini, than may be our Chef will cook them as well..."
Customer (rather surprised): "What do you mean? If you have Tortellini in your Menu, I don't quite see why your Chef should wait for other orders to come before he cooks Tortellini...."
Waiter (very professional): "Sir, let me explain to you: our Owner is a very cost conscious person. He likes efficiency throughout, of which we are very proud. Surely, you will realise that approximately the same amount of time, water and gas is needed to cook Tortellini for one or Tortellini for six. Well, we have decided long time ago that we would go for a minimum batch of six in all our Pasta dishes, in order to achieve optimum efficiency. Besides, this way, we can afford to have only one person in the kitchen, so the saving in manpower is tremendous. Should we go for individual orders, we would need at least another cook, and possibly also a junior to help out.... You see, we do not like to pass extra costs onto our Customers, that's our principle, and that's why tonight there are Spaghetti ready in our kitchen store. Can I get you some lovely Spaghetti Bolognese warmed up in our microwave oven?"

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