Just a short story to share. I am currently in Columbus, Ohio getting my first week of Master Black Belt training from MoreSteam. I will try to have a reflection of the week in whole later, but for now just a quick story. While in class we sat at tables ready to learn. There was something about these tables that really just, well, frustrated me. Paul Akers talks about the idea that if something bugs you, it probably is waste, so just fix what bugs you! I think this short example helps to show that.
To the left is what the table looked like when we all walked into the classroom. Looks great right? We are at "the" Ohio State University, so red tablecloth. We get it, the school colors are red, brilliant marketing. There's just one problem. This tablecloth is annoying! You sat down and it draped too low, to the point your feet would get caught and start dragging it down. I had drinks on the top of the table so no good for me if the drink spills everywhere right?
I wonder how often this actually happens to people. It nearly happened to me multiple times in the first day. Not only did my feet drag it down, when you place your computer and notebook on the tablecloth and try to take notes, the thing just starts to clump up on itself. Now I have a mountain range of red tablecloth going every which way.
What is the value of this tablecloth really? To me it was a negative value, in fact, it made me frustrated enough to think poorly of the University for setting up a training room in this way. Thinking about the idea of fixing what bugs me, I made a change after lunch. Here's what the table looked like after my improvement:
Alright, sure, it's not so pretty to look at. But let me tell you! It was 100% more practical to work! So where's the waste in all this?
First, for me there are plenty of little moments of defects causing me to do more motion and overprocessing just to make myself comfortable. It wasn't until later this afternoon when the class was over that the real waste became apparent. Each night, the University hires people to clean up the room. Since I had folded up the tablecloth, the person was going to take it and have it washed and replaced. I interjected quickly, "Excuse me, the tablecloth is fine. It was just really annoying to do my work while it was on the table." The attendant looked at me, then unfolded the tablecloth and draped it back over the table. So what happened there? First, as the Customer, I noted that it proved no value to me to have the tablecloth on the table. In Lean we think about our Customer in the way of how we can provide value to them. Sometimes we might find that our perception of what the Customer wants (a pretty red tablecloth draped annoyingly over the table) might not be what the Customer really wants. We have to be able to respect the opinion of our Customers enough to understand this sometimes.
Second, what just happened here? Because I have all these tablecloths everywhere, attendants have to come in to the room and straighten out every single one of them! So now they are doing extra work and having to endure some burden (I'm sure it's annoying getting them so straight on the table). If I had not spoken up, he was going to take it to get washed. So in a sense that would be overproduction (it did not need to be cleaned), transport (taking it to the laundry), defect (wasn't dirty), overprocessing and motion (either cleaning it anyway or sorting it from the real dirty tablecloths), and all the while we are not using any of our true potential as employees to make the process of setting up and cleaning up rooms any better. Why have a tablecloth? That table top was not super clean - there were scuff marks on it. Why were there scuff marks? Because the way we store them is leaned up against each other or against a cart with metal holders that are painted. When the table leans on the metal cart, it scuffs paint on the tabletop. You can see where I am going with this. There could have been so many more ways to make the room look "classroom" appropriate without annoying the Customer with the terrible tablecloth.
Instead of just complaining, we must ask ourselves, "what will I do to fix what bugs me?" We do this not just to be less annoyed, but there's probably a lot of waste (unnecessary cost!) associated with it. Keep your eyes open for the waste - it's everywhere!