Comments on: Rightsizing

By: Peter Huang

Peter Huang — Mon, 11 May 2009 02:03:33 +0000

Thanks for a very interesting article. I remember a relevant comment from a senior partner I once met who was worried about poorly planned expansion in the legal industry a few years ago. He said: “There’s a word for this kind of out-of-control growth: cancer.”

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:12:49 +0000

Even with the single “cattle lanes”, overcapacity — ie, counters that are unstaffed — is a common sight. In the UK, one of the few places I’ve ever seen all counters routinely staffed is at “mini-marts” — M & S Simply Food, or Tesco outlets. These are tiny stores at the best of times, and the counters are more like holding cells for the unfortunate clerks than anything else.

The reason that all the counters are filled is that, unless they were staffed, there’d be no space for the customers waiting in line. The footprint is so tiny (I’m thinking of the Tesco near my residence in Bloomsbury, across from Russell Square Tube Station, or the M&S Simply Food a few meters from St Paul’s) that moving the customers through and out as quickly as possible is an absolute necessity. [In order to ensure that customers leave through the correct door -- the one next to the registers -- there are burly security guards at all other entrances, and posted throughout the store. They take up room, but clearly it's worth it.]

This is the other face of rightsizing, and while it’s probably efficient, it does strip the process of buying and selling to its bare essentials. I don’t like shopping in these stores unless I have to, but I would never call them inefficient.

Brilliant article, as usual.

By: Jonathan Brun

Jonathan Brun — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:09:09 +0000

Actually, a lot of the over-capacity is simply due to poor design and the assumption ‘we have always done it this way’, not so much an anticipation for higher than realised traffic. Alaska airlines did an amazing redesign of their queuing system and were able to save money and dramatically improve customer service, see article below.

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/123/hustle-and-flow.html

By: Susan Cartier Liebel

Susan Cartier Liebel — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 13:44:07 +0000

Jordan, the ‘bigger is better’ mentality has always been alarming and often the absolutely incorrect direction a company needs to go in order to be profitable and provide excellent service to its clients. Many companies have the attitude ‘I must increase my market share’. Why not increase the value to the market you do have rather than trying to conquer the world. If a business’ footprint is done out of fear the next person will try to conquer the world then ask yourself this, ‘how much of the pie do I really need to feel full?’

By: Nick Holmes

Nick Holmes — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 21:07:42 +0000

The math is here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queueing_theory

The answer is to have one queue (as we see a lot elsewhere), but I guess they don’t do it because the shopping cart queue would be awkward to route.

Now … about queuing those associates …

By: Laurie/Halo Secretar

Laurie/Halo Secretar — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:41:17 +0000

Wow! As usual what an insightful post. It’s interesting to me right now because as my business grows I wonder what my next steps are. And I don’t want to be someone who gets bigger because they can – I want to provide a valuable service. Period. I think more companies should consider the effect of “growth” on their customers before pushing forward.