[lfjokes] All in the name of efficiency...

[Simondo]

From: simondo <simondo at paradise.net.nz>

A timeless lesson on how consultants can make a difference for an 
organization.

Last week, we took some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed that 
the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed 
a little strange, but I ignored it. However, when the busboy brought out 
water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket, then 
looked around the room and saw that all the staff had spoons in their 
pockets.
When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?
"Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired Anderson Consulting, 
experts in efficiency, in order to revamp all our processes. After several 
months of statistical analysis, they concluded that customers drop their 
spoons 73.84 percent more often than any other utensil. This represents a 
drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour.  If our 
personnel is prepared to deal with that contingency, we can reduce the 
number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift."

As luck would have it I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it 
with his spare spoon. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen 
instead of making an extra trip to get it right now."

I was rather impressed.

The waiter served our main course and I continued to look around. I then 
noticed that there was a very thin string hanging out of the waiter's fly.

Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging 
from their fly’s. My curiosity got the better of me and before he walked
off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me but can you tell me why you have that string 
right there?"
"Oh, certainly!" he answered, lowering his voice. "Not everyone is as 
observant as you. That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we 
can save time in the restroom."
"How so?”
"See," he continued, "by tying this string to the tip of you know what, we 
can pull it out over the urinal without touching it and that way eliminate 
the need to wash the hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 
76.39 percent."
"Okay, that makes sense, but . ... . if the string helps you get it out,
how do you put it back in?"
"Well," he whispered, lowering his voice even further, "I don't know about 
the others, but I use the spoon."