Everything I need to know about process flow, I can learn in a coffee line.
Watch any busy café for five minutes.
One person takes the order, one makes the drinks, and somebody keeps the pastries stocked. When it's working, it's almost a dance.
Then one order for six custom drinks shows up, and the whole line stops behind it.
Nobody did anything wrong. The process just wasn't built for that order.
The good cafés handle it without fuss: a second person jumps on the bar, the cashier calls out the next easy order, and the line starts moving again.
That's most of operations in one picture:
- Know where the bottleneck is (it's usually not where people are busiest)
- Have a plan for the unusual order before it arrives
- Let the people closest to the work make the call
I'll be in a coffee line this weekend, probably watching the flow more than I should.
What's an everyday place that taught you something about how work flows?
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This piece first appeared as a post on LinkedIn.