Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act

At the call centre for the Shoe Emporium, Lisa got in extra early for her shift.  There was no taking any chances today – she didn’t know if there would be any more crazy announcements, and she definitely didn’t want a repeat of the other day.  The last thing Lisa needed was to give Robert the Boss an excuse to make her last three weeks here more miserable than they were already.

Lisa dialled in to her phone, looked at the phone queue and got ready for the onslaught of calls.

“Hello Lisa, guess who?” said a rather cheery voice in her ear.

“Oh my God!” she jumped up from her chair, nearly spilling her coffee over the desk.  “Steve, how in the world did you get on the other end of my phone?”

There was laughter on the other end, and Lisa took a moment to compose herself.  “That’s not funny!” she added.

Steve replied between chuckles. “I called your service number and had one of your team-mates put me through to you,” he said.  “Did you know it took me five minutes just to press all the options and get on to a real person?”

“I know,” groaned Lisa. “Believe me, I hear it from my actual paying customers every day,” she added, with a grin.

“I’ll be quick, I promise,” said Steve, taking the hint.  “There’s some stuff I really need to tell you to help you on your journey, especially as you’re running out of time.”

Lisa grabbed a notebook and looked around the office to see if anyone had noticed her unusual antics.

Steve continued.  “Yesterday I noticed your office kitchen bin was overflowing.  In fact, there was a lot of extra waste in it.”

Lisa looked over her shoulder to the kitchen bin.  It was still unemptied, a few flies had made it their home and it was starting to smell.  Yuck, she thought.

“Yes, and there still is,” she confirmed.

“Perfect, because that’s exactly what has happened in the company you work for,” continued Steve.  “Each process you perform for your customers has so much extra waste in it that it’s becoming unpleasant for them to stick around any longer.  They have no choice but to leave and shop elsewhere.”

“What are you saying, our process is like last night’s leftovers?” said Lisa half joking, half trying to understand.

“It’s a different kind of waste,” said Steve. “There are eight types of waste you see in businesses every day.  But the most common ones for your business are having to redo work, waiting on work from other processes, navigating uneven workloads and having too many non-value added process steps.”

Lisa was writing furiously as Steve spoke.

“So think about those things when you do your first Map.  Especially, make sure you add in timings of your process and things that don’t add value to your customer, like queues or wait time. You can use these to reduce that wait time later on.  When you add them all in you can see where you need to improve.”

“Steve, I love talking to you, but sometimes our conversations make my head feel like it’s about to explode.”

Steve laughed.  “I know it can be a lot to take in.  Maybe you could use a little sugar-hit?  Look around your desk.”

Lisa looked to the side of her desk and there was a box of donuts, fresh from the boardwalk.  She looked around the call centre and her friend Jerry gave her an enthusiastic wave.

“Steve, how did you…?”

“It’s amazing what your colleagues will do with a little bribery,” said Steve, obviously glad his ploy had worked.  “Jerry, I think his name was?

“But I got those for you for another reason.  Notice how each of those donuts is labelled clearly and separated into its own section within that box?”

Lisa opened the lid, and sure enough the layout was immaculate.  Each flavour had a clear label and a separate spot, appearing to be much nicer than donuts from a regular store.

“When you are reducing the eight wastes, a good place to start is with a thing called ‘Five S’ to organise your workplace, just like that donut box.  Five S is where we Sort out any unnecessary items, Straighten and arrange them so they are easy to reach and have a clear, visible home, Shine and tidy regularly, ensure it becomes the new Standard with labels and clear outlines and then Sustain it by redoing it regularly.”

“Very clever Steve,” said Lisa.  “Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise and Sustain.  I can think of a few places I might use Five S already.  And just so you know, I am going to use those donuts.  Jerry is about to have lunch, and I know if he helps me with the map, then others will come and help too.”

“Perfect!” said Steve warmly.  “Now I’d better go.  We wouldn’t want to get old red-face involved again.”

Lisa laughed.  “Goodbye Steve.”

She looked over at Jerry and picked up her box of donuts.  Jerry smiled, and gave a longing look at the beautiful box – it seemed as though in bringing them to her he had gotten a taste, and he wouldn’t take much convincing after all.

It was time for them to make a map.

*

Half an hour later, with two more friends Anne and Ron who agreed to help in return for a donut or two, Jerry and Lisa had mapped out their process over lunch.  In fact, while they had been sceptical at first, there was a definite buzz in the air as they left the meeting room with a rough Value Stream Map firmly in hand.

“I can actually see the process!” said Jerry, waving his hands around excitedly.  “The delays and rework, why it is so frustrating, everything!”

Even Lisa was chuffed.  They had even found a few process steps that weren’t really necessary and could be combined to help make the process faster.

But as they spoke excitedly and walked back to their desks, they were interrupted by a loud, grating voice.

“Does the name Sarah Stephenson ring any bells to you?”  It was Robert the Boss, his red face creased in a frown, and Jerry, Anne and Ron suddenly made themselves scarce.  Lisa looked up at Robert and nodded, but remained silent.

“Her wedding shoe order from three weeks ago never arrived, and her wedding is tomorrow.  Now she is asking for a refund that this company can’t afford to make.  This is your order Lisa.  Fix it or it’s coming out of your pay!”

Lisa’s heart sank.  She knew Sarah, she was her best customer.  Lisa watched as the boss stormed off past the “outgoing items” department in the middle of the floor and groaned.  Sorting through the items in that department to try and find Sarah’s order would be like finding a needle in a haystack – the place was truly a mess.  This was not going to be easy.

“Robert, wait!”  Lisa called and hurried after him.

“Maybe I have something that can help.  My customers told me that they want overnight shipping.  If we brought this in perhaps we could use it to get Sarah’s shoes to her in time?”

Robert looked back at her sceptically, but said nothing, so Lisa continued.

“They also said they’d be willing to pay more for our niche brands and longer return periods as VIP customers.  I was thinking, these are all things that could give the call centre more time.”

Robert was silent for a moment.

“OK,” he said in his gruff voice, “but don’t think this lets you off the hook.  I still want that order found!”  And he stormed back into his office.  Lisa breathed a sigh of relief.  It was time for some fresh air.

*

Stepping out onto the boardwalk, Lisa felt it had been a busy morning already.  As hard as she worked on the Lean tools she was learning, sometimes it still seemed as though there was a long way to go.

“Nice day for a walk, isn’t it?”  A familiar mop of light brown hair was warming himself on a park bench in the sun.

“Steve!  I should have known you’d be here,” and even though she was relived, she added, “Don’t you ever do any work?” and grinned.

“With the good standard processes I have in place, Lisa, I don’t have to,” Steve countered.  “My employees have everything they need.

“How did you enjoy the donuts?” he asked.

“They were great, Steve.  In fact my team-mates ended up enjoying helping out – we even found a few processes we can combine to get rid of queues and wait time.”

“That’s great, Lisa!” Steve smiled.  “I was actually just passing through, but I did want to show you something while I’m here.  Look at this.”  He motioned across the boardwalk and leaned in so he could talk quietly.

A young girl and her mother were having a “discussion” near the ice-cream stand, although discussion was hardly the right word.  For every time the mother told her child that she couldn’t have an ice-cream, the young girl simply asked “why”.  Over and over and over again.

“Kids sure are persistent,” noted Lisa.

“And that girl is asking the right question,” said Steve.  “In our business, if we want to get to the real reason behind something we ask “Why?”, and we continue to ask it until we get to the root cause of the issue.  I think you’ll need that in the next few days, as you run into problems in your process that you need to fix, and try to define it properly with your team-mates.”

Lisa nodded.  “I think I will too.  And it looks like “why” is either going to get that young girl an answer, or an ice-cream,” she laughed.

“Exactly,” said Steve.

Lisa turned towards her building.  “Thanks, Steve.  I’m glad you’re here,” she said.  But now, it was time to get back to work.

*

There was a large commotion on the call centre floor as Lisa made her way back to her desk.  Many of the call centre employees had gathered, and in front of them was Robert the Boss, microphone in hand, already speaking to the crowd.

“…So that is why I recently came up with the idea of overnight shipping on items, and up-selling the niche brands that our customers have grown to love.  Because of this, the board of directors have decided to put off the closing of our call centre by one week.  Thanks to me, we just might have a chance.”

There was applause and relief from the crowd, but Lisa couldn’t believe what she’d heard.  Did he just say he came up with those ideas?  The ideas that she had literally only given him a short while earlier?  Lisa’s fists clenched together, her nails digging into her skin as Robert the Boss finished off his speech to more applause from her team-mates.

As the crowd dispersed, Robert lingered a little and caught her eye.  He flashed a knowing smile at Lisa before turning around, and disappeared back into his glass office.

Sitting down in stunned silence, Lisa looked over at Anne to find some support.  Anne saw her, but her eyes widened, and she looked away.

That’s strange, thought Lisa.

She looked over at Jerry and gave him a small wave.  But Jerry pretended not to see her, staring straight ahead and then slouching so he was out of view.

Something was going on, she thought.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur to Lisa.  It seemed as though her job, her ideas, and now even her team-mates were being taken away from her, but Lisa could still do what she did best.

The afternoon turned into evening, and Lisa took call after call, helping person after person with their varied needs around shoes.  The more people she helped, the better she felt.  By the time she hung up on her last call of the day, Lisa knew what she had to do.

If she was going to find Sarah’s missing order, she would have to brave the outgoing mail area that looked like a bomb had hit it.  Only now she had the perfect tool – the Five S that Steve had taught her.  She was sure that if she tidied it up, used labels, marked areas and put things close at hand, she could also save the people who worked there many hours of work each day.  Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise and Sustain.

It was dark outside and there was no one left on the floor as she had worked so late, and as she began sifting through the mountains of paper and boxes Robert the Boss came past as he left for the night.

“What are you still doing here?” he asked, genuinely surprised.

Lisa gritted her teeth.  “Just doing more things for you to save the company with,” she replied, with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

“Yeah well, make sure you lock up on your way out,” he said, and looking over his shoulder he added: “They’re not going to keep this call centre, you know.  That stuff about the board of directors, I was making that up.  They’re meeting in three weeks to decide whether to offshore the rest of this company after this centre goes.  It’s just a matter of doing the numbers.”

Lisa’s anger grew.  “What?  Why would you tell me that?  These people are counting on you, Robert!” she said, raising her voice.

“Because I know you would never do anything to hurt your beloved Shoe Emporium,” replied Robert the Boss, with a goading grin.  “Of all the people I could tell in this place, you are my safest bet.”

And without another glance, he left.

Lisa kicked a few of the boxes out of her way in disgust, and they scattered in a pile around her.  As she sat down and looked through the pile, a label caught her eye.  It read:

“Sarah Stephenson: URGENT”

Oh my God, thought Lisa.  It was the missing order!  It had never even left the outgoing department, the place was so cluttered.

Lisa didn’t know whether to laugh or cry – the whole process at the Shoe Emporium was obviously broken.  At least now, with Robert using her idea of overnight shipping, she could make sure that Sarah got her shoes before her big day.

Robert the Boss’ horrible attitude had only served to make her more determined.  Lisa knew what she had to do, and with each passing day she was getting the tools to do it.  She knew she could make a difference.

What she didn’t know was why her team-mates were acting so strangely.  Although, she was about to find out, and when she did, it would turn everything she had done so far upside-down.

Selected chapters from the story within Five minute Lean:

• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Makes a Change
• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Discovers a New Way
• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Performs a Balancing Act
• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Pulls the Trigger
• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Sets a New Standard
• Lean Parable – Where Lisa Becomes a Leader

Check out these selected chapters from the teachings within Five Minute Lean:

• Five Minute Lean – Introduction
• Five Minute Lean – Build in Quality with Error-Proofing and Autonomation
• Five Minute Lean – Create a Future State Value Stream Map
• Five Minute Lean – Eliminate the Eight Wastes to Improve Flow
• Five Minute Lean Summary
• Five Minute Lean – Implement With Agile for Fast Iterations and Feedback
• Five Minute Lean – Help Your Process Flow with Line Balancing
• Five Minute Lean – Use Feedback to Fix and Guarantee
• Five Minute Lean – Put it Together With Design for Ease of Use
• Five Minute Lean – Create a Pull System with FIFO, Kanban Triggers and Visual Management
• Five Minute Lean: Glossary
• Five Minute Lean – Use Kaizen and Kaizen Events to Help Stakeholder Buy-In
• Five Minute Lean – Organise Your Process with Five S
• Five Minute Lean – Create a New Standard Procedure and Checklist for Quality Control
• Five Minute Lean – Gather Direct Feedback and Indirect Feedback
• Five Minute Lean – Solve the Real Cause of the Problem
• Five Minute Lean – Work Towards One-Piece-Flow (and Reducing Silos or Batching)
• Five Minute Lean – Heijunka: Level the Workload when Demand Fluctuates
• Five Minute Lean – Use Pareto to Find Where to Start
• Five Minute Lean – Go to the Gemba