Matt of Overtaken by Events writes:
I've been fascinated with the productivity reports ever since I was
employed at Wal-Mart Stores and had the opportunity to attend a lunch
with Warren Buffett. This may be anecdotal, but based on the scale, I
think it's telling.
The company I work for now partners with several large hardware
manufacturers to deliver IT rollouts for Wal-Mart. One of the current
projects is a multi-million dollar installation of a wireless network
into every store in the US for the sole purpose of making the checkout
areas more efficient. If you've ever been in line and had to wait for
someone to deliver change to the register, you know how much time it
can take. When this project is complete, every checkout supervisor
will have a PDA that will communicate directly with the register. When
a cashier starts to run low on change, has to go to the bathroom or
has virtually any other problem, there will be a specific code they
enter that will page the PDA and tell the supervisor exactly what they
need. No longer will the supervisor have to walk to the register, find
out the problem and make another trip to resolve it. This may only
save a few minutes at a time, but when you're talking about 100
million customers per week the productivity
gains could be enormous.
As a bonus, this new system will also track each cashier, ensuring
that breaks and lunches are taken at the appropriate times, going so
far as to shut down a specific register if that person hasn't signed
out. This could potentially help to shield the company from future
labor lawsuits.
This is just one example from one company for whom I am working on
multiple projects. I agree with you, though. I'm unlikely to read
about this in the Post.
Keep those stories, positive and negative, coming. Thanks. |
