(Guest article by Renee Thiesing)
I recently found myself in a situation that can only be described as completely frustrating. And as an Industrial Engineer, it was even more frustrating because with just a small amount of reorganization and process enhancement, the customer experience could be improved tenfold. No, this aggravating experience did not occur at the Department of Motor Vehicles, it transpired at a children’s ski school drop off counter.
I arrived with my daughter at 8:45am, which is in the middle of the recommended arrival time slot of 8:30-9:00am. The line of about 6 people was making the very small lobby area seem tiny. Besides the fact that the line was moving incredibly slow, when the person at the front of the line arrived at the counter, there was no clear process that occurred. Some people had reservations, some did not. Some people needed to rent equipment, some did not. Depending on your situation, the time that you spent at the counter when you reached the front of the line, varied. It seemed there was no clear benefit to having reservations. And for those poor people who were renting equipment (myself included), after finally reaching the front of the first line, we were sent upstairs to an even more chaotic ski rental area. As we joined the back of another line, I realized that this line was only for boots. Once my daughter was finished getting fitted for boots, I needed to go to the other side of the room for skis. And was the line I waited in for skis the final line? No. Next, we trekked back downstairs to where we started, only to join another line. Here is where we waited for my daughter to finally enter the ski school. After it was all said and done, it was one hour later and the world was left with yet another dissatisfied customer.
I can’t help wonder how some simple changes might improve the system. What if they assigned a certain number of people to arrive at 8:30am, another group to arrive at 8:45am and yet another at 9:00am? Would this arrival process help reduce the time customers wait in line? I believe there should be a clear benefit to people who have reservations. Would their experience be improved if they had a line separate from the people who did not reserve a spot? One of the most annoying aspects of the system was that we had to go upstairs and wait in line to rent our equipment. Non ski school patrons were mixed in with ski school children in this room. At the very least, ski school participants should receive priority for being served. But even better, I would like them to analyze the costs and benefits of moving some equipment rental downstairs to the ski school. I would like to drop my daughter off and let them employees fit her for both her skis and boots right there in the room where she’ll eventually begin her lessons. By having her sizes in my reservation file, they could have the equipment ready in the downstairs area.
This is a very simple system. But since it is broken, perhaps they need a demonstration of how it can be improved. Simulation anyone?
Renee Thiesing
Application Engineer – Simio LLC
Tags: process, simulation, ski school, skiing
Sadly, I think that this is a problem that we all encounter far too often. The worst is that because of the frequency of frustrating situations like these, one would think that attempts would be made to improve the situation depending on the tools available.
The biggest issue though that would have to be solved before a simulation model was developed would be an understanding of the process. One of my co-workers, our resident Six Sigma guy if you will, is constantly talking about process maps. All too often I think people understand there is an issue, but try to identify a solution without really understanding the root of the problem. They haven’t really laid out the current state of affairs in order to fully understand what they are trying to fix. They quickly move to implement change only to find that it didn’t end up solving the problem. In the end, it takes more time and iterations of problem solving to find the solution when if care was taken initially, the issues could have been clearly identified and specifically targeted. This is where the simulation would then prove to be a very handy tool.
So I totally agree simulation would be a huge help, but I think a pitfall that the general populance faces is that they don’t understand the importance of understanding the current state of things and trying to identify the root of the issue before proposing a solution.
In seven spring, a snow resort in Pittsburgh, they file customers’ sizes of boots and gear upon their first arrival. Maybe it’s a simple step to type in that information, but it is really save a lot of time for both customers and staffs.
I agree simulation would be a huge help, but how long does it take? Most people need instant improvement when they have problems. For industrial engineers, they need to do observation to get the data, then construct the problem and compare for several scenarios to find a better way. Much effort paid behind a simple improvement, and most people ignore it and take it for granted.
I totally agree with waikiki8888.
In China, waiting in line is a super common situation that you need to face that several times every day for the huge population. And the concept of simulation is not popular yet in China. I have several experience like standing in the line of bank for more than a half hour. There are not enough chairs and enough counters but enough space.
so I think, before the work of simulation, propagandizing the concept of simulation might be the main job of industrial engineers
I think that efranzen22 raises a good point about people not understanding the process. I think going back to good old time studies would increase understanding about how separating lines here, adding an employee there, or switching around resources in general can cut down on costs, time, and increase customer satisfaction.
Then, there will be a greater appreciation as well as demand for simulation to solve problems like this. I think it would be neat if every company or store everywhere had an industrial engineer.