TakeAway: Starbucks is telling its harried baristas to slow down, which may result in longer lines.
Amid customer complaints that Starbucks has reduced the fine art of coffee making to a mechanized process, Starbucks baristas are being told to stop making multiple drinks at the same time and focus instead on no more than two drinks at a time.
Starbucks says the changes are part of its ongoing effort to make stores operate more efficiently.
But some baristas worry it will create longer lines.
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Excerpted from the Wall Street Journal, “At Starbucks, Baristas Told No More Than Two Drinks” By Julie Jargon, October 13, 2010
Starbucks insists the new procedures will eventually hasten the way drinks are made and lead to fresher, hotter drinks. Steaming milk for individual drinks, for example, “ensures the quality of the beverage in taste, temperature and appearance,” Starbucks documents state, while focusing on just two drinks at a time “reduces possibility for errors.”
Customers have indicated that the quality of espresso drinks at Starbucks is “average” and that the beverages are inconsistently prepared from barista to barista and from store to store, the documents say.
Over the last few years, Starbucks has been applying to the coffee counter the kind of “lean” manufacturing techniques car makers have long used as a way to streamline production, eliminate wasteful activity and speed up service. The company has deployed a “lean team” to study every move its baristas make in order to shave seconds off each order.
The company has made numerous changes to its business amid the economic downturn, including closing underperforming stores, trimming its number of bakery suppliers, boosting the perks of its loyalty-card program and introducing new varieties of its Via instant coffee. The cost-cutting and customer-improvement paid off in the company’s last quarter.
Edit by AMW
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Full Article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704164004575548403514060736.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTWhatsNews
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