Inspiration can strike at any time. Today it struck while ordering a raspberry smoothie.
While waiting for my order at the Kelso Burgerville, I noticed a colorful poster on the door. It was an exploded view of 15 different sandwiches.
If you’re not familiar with Burgerville, they’re a chain of restaurants mostly located in Oregon. The northernmost “BV” is in Centralia, Washington. I tend to frequent the stores near client sites – Kelso, Woodland, Vancouver.
They make excellent burgers. So excellent, in fact, a leading consumer magazine (the one that hates it when you identify them as “Consumer Reports”) rates the Burgerville product second only to the epic In-n-Out Burger.
So, Kelso Burgerville, raspberry smoothie, poster of 15 exploded sandwiches.
The young man behind the counter explained the poster was there as a reminder of what the various sandwiches contained. “We look at those all the time – they’re great for training new people.” He went on to explain that his own training had involved creating a notebook of drawings that, in a personal way, mirrored the information provided by the poster.
What can a poster of exploded sandwiches teach us seekers of Lean?
First, it sets expectations – the poster says, “This is how we do it. This is our standard work. While it may seem a petty thing to place the tomato slice atop the lettuce every time, we do it because our customers expect it. Our customer buy our burgers because they are so good, and so consistent. If, in the course of time, our customers demand a shift in the tomato/lettuce alignment, we will change our standard work to accommodate the new thinking. Until then, this is how we do it.”
Second, it reminds the worker of how rarely ordered sandwiches are constructed. The specific order of the Tillamook Cheese Burger may be seared on your soul in letters of fire, but the Anasazi Bean Burger could be a mystery to you. Sales volume will do that to a person. The poster of the exploded sandwich understands and provides that calm assurance that, yes, you can build an Anasazi Bean Burger too. All of our 15 sandwiches can be constructed simply by looking here.
“Brilliant,” you’re thinking, “but we don’t make burgers. We make ball valves.” How many components are there to your ball valve? Six? Has anyone ever forgotten to mount that rubber O-ring when they were assembling a ball valve? What’s it worth to you to not have that happen again?
Or…”brilliant,” you’re thinking, “but we don’t make burgers. We do blood draws.” Right. Do you remember the needle size designed for babies? Do you have an absorbent pad for the arm of your phlebotomy chair? Are you scrubbed up and gloved up? How many draw tubes do you need? Got the right colored labels? Sharp container at the ready?
The things we use to add value to our work come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Burgerville sets expectations, lends guidance and assurance, all with a colorful poster of exploded sandwiches.
