How Spoons Save Money....
Last week, we took some friends to a new restaurant, 'Rog's Place,' and
noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt
pocket.
It seemed a little strange. When the bus-boy brought our water and utensils,
I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.
When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, ' Why the spoon? '
' Well, ' he explained, ' the restaurant ' s owner hired Andersen Consulting to
revamp all of 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 replaced 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 saw that all of 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 learned that we can save time in the
restroom.
By tying this string to the tip of our 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 rest-room by 76.39% and saving 1157 gallons of water per
week.
I asked quietly, ' After you get it out, how do you put it back in? '
' Well, ' he whispered, ' I don ' t know about the others, but I use the spoon. '
........
noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt
pocket.
It seemed a little strange. When the bus-boy brought our water and utensils,
I observed that he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket.
Then I looked around and saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets.
When the waiter came back to serve our soup I inquired, ' Why the spoon? '
' Well, ' he explained, ' the restaurant ' s owner hired Andersen Consulting to
revamp all of 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 replaced 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 saw that all of 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 learned that we can save time in the
restroom.
By tying this string to the tip of our 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 rest-room by 76.39% and saving 1157 gallons of water per
week.
I asked quietly, ' After you get it out, how do you put it back in? '
' Well, ' he whispered, ' I don ' t know about the others, but I use the spoon. '
........
