As I was getting off an airplane; two airport buses were waiting to take us to the terminal building.

The airport operator knew there were 100 passengers on the plane and they

could only fit 75 passengers in one bus,

so the right number of buses had been sent.

75 spaces

75 spaces

BUS 1

BUS 2

100 People

A question I asked myself, was there too much effort?

Each passenger takes a little bit longer as the bus gets full:

Plenty of room: 3 seconds each

Find a space: 5 seconds each

Squeeze up please: 9 seconds each

Plenty of room: 3 seconds each

BUS 1

BUS 2Total time

500 seconds

=-

--.

...

...

.

Imagine if…

There was a different standard to load buses, The new standard would be counter-intuitive,

Only put half the passengers on each bus. Do not optimize the first bus by making it full,

waste space on both buses!

BUS 1 BUS 2

OLDWAY

BUS 1 BUS 2

NEWWAY

WASTE

WASTE WASTE

The new loading time for passengers would become 100 seconds faster:

Plenty of room: 3 seconds each

Find a space: 5 seconds each

Plenty of room: 3 seconds each

BUS 1

BUS 2Total time

400 seconds

=-

--.

...

...

.

Find a space: 5 seconds each

Think about it, 100 seconds on 500 secondsis 20% faster, if your buses are 20% faster you need a smaller fleet of buses.

Imagine smaller size groups arriving at border control, with more evenly spaced arrival time; cutting queue times.

Border Control

Less effort and more benefit,

a win-win situation!

Amazon.com

This is not counter-intuitive; this is “The Joy of Standards” the method to solve problems and save effort

within your organization.

Available on Kindle, iPad (Kindle App) and paperback:

Amazon.fr Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.de Amazon.com.br In fact all Amazon sites!

Paperback on CreateSpace (an Amazon company):

CreateSpace.com