In the last post in this series we met a fellow I worked with at the Dillworthtown Inn named Duc Nguyen. Duc in a way is responsible for me attending business school to study management. It started when one afternoon I was given the task of preparing 200 salads to be ready for dinner service.
Duc gave me the task and I set to it (being very proud to not be washing dishes that night). A tray holds 4 by 5 plates for 20 in total so that meant preparing 10 trays of salads. Piece of cake.
So I got the first tray and put in on the counter. Then I got one plate and put it carefully in the corner of the tray. Then I added the right amount of lettuce to the plate. Then shaved purple cabbage, then carrots and finally two wedges of tomatoes at opposing sides of the plate. Then I got the second plate and began again.
After ten minutes Duc came by to inspect my work. “Dinner will be over before you finish” was his comment. “But I am working as fast as I can!” I replied. “Work better” he said.
Duc got a second tray and put it next to the first. Then he got a stack of dishes and loaded plate, plate, plate, plate until the trays had their compliment of plates. Then he grabbed the lettuce and went from plate to plate – lettuce, lettuce, lettuce until each plate had the required amount. Then cabbage. Then carrots, then tomatoes. And in one tenth the time it would have taken me he had 40 salads done.
“Like that”. Duc was a man of few words.
That was the moment when I became obsessed with finding the better way to do things. Who knew the value of having to pre-make 200 salads?
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