Most any business has some inefficiency
built into its day to day operation. Some run much better than others
depending on staffing requirements, the work environment and skill levels
needed. I find restaurants are a good model to look at as they offer a full
menu of areas than can be improved (excuse the pun).
For this post, I decided to take a look
at a situation similar to the one I've drawn below:
In the schematic you have a bar area with dining
tables on two sides. (You can assume that the kitchen is located
towards the back area). Please notice that there are two cash
registers areas; one located by the entrance and a second over behind the bar.
Typically, bar patrons pay at the bar register while diners amble
over to the register located by the entrance after they've finished
dining. Note that on any given day there will be on average two servers,
a cook and a bartender/manager. Now, while everyone is pretty
much cross trained at all the positions, it is typically the
bartender who serves as the main cashier at both register locations. He or she is also responsible
to make sure new arrivals are cordially greeted and seated after which a server
takes over.
Next, let's take a look at some
potential inefficiencies in this scenario. Note that the bartender is
most likely to be found behind the bar as a typical starting point.
Second, let's assume that on a typical day our theoretical
establishment will ring up about 100 tickets. (This would imply that
the four employees present, during any one shift, are all kept pretty
busy). Third, let's make an assumption that of the 100 tickets rung
up each day, 60 are at the entrance register and 40 are at the bar.
All things being equal, one could then reasonably extrapolate that
the bartender will make quite a few trips to the entrance register
during the course of a normal business day. Next, for the purpose of
argument, let's estimate those trips to be about 30 per day.
Furthermore, that each trip would require the employee to navigate
from position X over to the entrance register/greeting area. (Now,
while that person can take one of two possible routes, let's average
it out and say that the distance covered is about 40 feet for one
round trip). Summarizing, forty trips at forty feet per would equal ~1600
feet traversed each day. That figure can then be used to estimate
that the distance walked would be roughly 11,200 feet per week which
would come to something like 548,200 feet a year
(that's just about 110 miles)! Now, assuming that the person(s) walked at 2
mph, the time spent going back and forth would come to 55 hours of time per year. Wow!
OK, now let's change a couple of small
things:
Note that; 1) an access way has be
inserted in the main bar and 2) the entrance register has also been
moved to that general location. Additionally, the old register booth
was now being used for merchandise which makes that square footage a
cash producer (potentially)!
The bartender/manager now only needs to walk a few feet, in
either direction to service either the bar customers or the diners.
This series of changes will result in three positive changes for the
owner;
- A significant number of man hours could be saved each year
- Patrons coming in to the establishment could be greeted a minute, or so, faster
- Square footage was freed up for new income potential
What's really happened her? A quantifiable increase in efficiency at
little infrastructural cost.
