5S the Coffee Pots

It’s time for some coffee talk other than Starbucks… afternoon coffee break here.
In Philadelphia last month during our LEI workshops (have you seen our new web design?), I was there three days, teaching my workshop for two and attending one other day.

Day One, the Regular coffee was to the left and Decaf was to the right. Each was clearly labeled, no big deal.

Day Two, the hotel staff set up things in reverse, Decaf was to the left (ugh this was a blurry iPhone pic):

Why not standardize the location? Is it that hard? What if a decaf drinker wasn’t paying attention and took coffee from the same location as Day One? This could cause health problems (or drowsiness, depending on the direction of the error by the coffee drinker). Maybe I should have moved them rather than just taking a picture…

Now the signs were correct each day. But, would you blame the coffee drinker for “not being careful” and not reading the signs? Or is this a systemic error? Thoughts?

On Day Three, the coffee was back to the original Day One configuration, of course.

If you come take my Key Concepts of Lean in Healthcare course at the LEI office in December, our single cup (small batch!) coffee maker is always in the same location…