“Lots of people (especially in the Lean and Agile community) talk a lot about Cost of Delay. We hear it mentioned all the time. But what we don’t see so much of is people actually quantifying it. Seems crazy, doesn’t it? The thing is, most organizations are blind to queues. We tend to focus predominantly on the efficiency of the parts of the process, not the speed of the end-to-end delivery of value. “ Here is affine view over the cost of delay and view exercises and techniques calculating it.
As a lean fan I tend to look at any line of production with
the lean eyes. I can’t help it. The car wash line is one example of a very annoying
one to the customer when it is not efficient. Waiting in line for all the
process steps to be completed (and then paying for it) sometimes it is a long
and no pleasant experience at all. But, there are places where its deferent. Why?
Without a doubt, when the principles behind lean processing are applied and
used washing your car in the car washing line can be a more pleasant experience,
where you, as a customer, will probably be more willing to pay for the service,
and value, you got.
The washing machine looks great in the videos, but does
it alone provides the quality of service the customer needs? Car washing is not
all about the washing machine; It has a lot to do with the process and the
ability to improve according to business value requirements.
This weekend I have
decided to take some shoots and follow the production line of the last place I’ve
been to. I’ve been taking the family car for a wash ever since I had my license, and it has always been the same. Usually it takes 30m to 1h from the
time I am arriving to the washing line till it’s all done and i can drive away. It’s so
annoying taking your car, knowing that you have so much stuff to do on a Friday morning and
this assignment takes to much time. The only solution is to arrive to the
washing line very early in the morning,
or have someone else take your car for a wash.
Well, I have always known it wasn’t the best efficient line, but there was no other in the
area… until I got to this one.. only 15 min from start to end.
What’s the deferent? You’ll see.
The old way, is it as great as it looks in the commercials?
(A great machine BTW)
Well, this is how it goes here. Its Friday, everyone washes
their car in Israel. Why? I think its just because it's a non working day, and a
very short one, just before every business will shut down for the Sabbath.
The flow is as follows:
1.
Park your car in the line
(usually a long line).
2.
When you are closer to the tunnel you are requested a payment.
3.
Wait to enter the tunnel.
4.
Get out of the tunnel in
Green light.
5.
Drive to the parking place
where where the internal cleanning of the car is placed (usually a hold up there – sometimes not enough stuff, not enough vacuums or
just a long lines of cars waiting for (no) parking space)
6. Wait for the car to be internally cleaned, (windows, vacuumed, panels, spry, tiers, seats, rugs...) while only one cleaner is in charge over one car) therefore this is usually taking most of the
times.
7. Tips – Each cleaner is in charge
of a car therefore collects his own tip for his own personal effort, rewarded to his
personal work only. No rewards for team work.
8. Needless to say that
while waiting, there may be argues between car owners ove rparking space and over 'who was first'… it really doesn’t worth it.
Usually there a regarbage laying around, no clean
towels and a mess with the equipment. Well, every business has deferent degree
of efficiently in its production line but usually this is how it looks like and
it seems no one know or want to change it. Why is that? After all, customers (including me)
keep coming in.
Well, instead of keep digging into the old style let’s look
into something that does work. Remember the 15 minute cycle time vs. 30m (to
1 hour) cycle time in the old style? Here’s why.
1.Flow:
a. The line activities start right away when you
enter the carwash waiting line. Why wait if the business can offer service that
will shorten your waiting time and can be deliver earlier anyway? This action
alone probably cuts short a lot of working time from the end steps of the
process and reduce the overall cycle time for the customer.
i.
Rugs are pooled out to the
washing machine and brought back right before the car enters the tunnel.
ii.
In case of a long line vacuumed
also starts in this phase. Reducing waiting time and overall cycle time in high
pick production.
b.
Internal clean up, a usual bottleneck
is handled by taking few cleaners to start clean one car, this way reducing the
customer cycle time. Instead of having
one cleaner in charge of each car as the
old style applies the entire team reduce the waiting waste of a customer by internally
cleaning the car as a team. This is a very a powerful and effective mindset and
waste reduction activity.
c. Finishing – Tires and spray
are cleaned at the last moments just before the customer takes the car. All
the materials are ready according to the flow steps.
d. The car engine is running
all the time, so at the end all the customer has to do is get into the car, enjoy the nice
smell of a clean car and ride a way (Even the mirrors are back to place , how connivance
is that?)
The entire washing line is visualized: Everything is sorted according to the
relevant activity where the car needs to run; Everything is cleaned an in order (and the righ shape) according to the business understanding of an effective flow; And it also looks
like every employee is aware and tuned to the business rules up to the point of
explaining the rules to the customer.
3. Mass production preparations As in every Friday, the production line gets ready to handle a lot of cars by
preparing the right materials in the right place.
4. Cleaners Tips
Visible, near the place where the car owner can sit and relax and in plain view. Everyone is accountable as a team to get the car out of the line clean and with customer satisfaction. This is a powerful mindset approach where everyone is accountable and rewarded for a team effort as a team.
5. Payment – is being taken at
the end of the line along with other offering (to increase incomes). 6. Last but defiantly not
least: everyone smiling , and customer orientation is a mindset.
How does it look like to eliminate waste? what does people actually do? Waste elimination examples : from the manufacturing line, personal aspects, small businesses and more…
