Continuous improvement throughout the whole process
Washing up has five stages:
1. Eating on clean plates
2. Stacking dirty plates next to the sink
3. Washing the plates
4. Stacking clean plates on the draining board for drying
5. Putting away the clean plates
At stage 5, putting away the clean plates effectively depends on how the plates are stacked for drying. If all of the same types of items are placed together then it’s easier to put them away without having to go through an in-between stage of sorting them. These in-between stages activities that creep in appear to be adding to the efficiency but don’t actually tackle the underlying issues that are causing the inefficiency.
At stage 4, stacking the clean plates on the draining board in the right way depends on how you wash them. Efficiency can be improved within the stage to ensure the items dry quickly, such as stacking saucepans upside down with larger ones on top of smaller ones to save space, but just gaining efficiency within the stage could lead to less efficiency across the entire process so its important to take feedback from outside the stage.
At stage 3, washing the plates in the most efficient way depends on how they were stacked before washing. If all the plates will be washed together then they should be stacked together. And groups of items should be washed in a particular order, with cleaner items washed before dirtier items to maximise the cleanliness of the water.
And at stage 2, stacking dirty plates next to the sink and making them ready for washing depends on knowing how they are going to be washed at stage 3. So, sharp knives are kept separate for safety, plates are cleared and rinsed, and types of items are stacked together.
Processes can only be efficient as a whole if each part of the process is efficient. If one part doesn’t receive feedback from the other parts it can be organised efficiently for itself but reduce efficiency across the whole system.