In this episode of the WLEI Podcast, Matt Savas sits down with LEI President Josh Howell and Richard Vellante, LEI’s executive director of events and administration. They discuss the labor shortage and recent supply chain issues with the perspectives and intuition, as well as addressing recent blame thrown towards lean within the supply chain industry.
Leadership is at the center of these topics, with Rich’s experience as an executive chef lending some hands-on nuance to the conversation. Leaders should be hard on the process, not the people getting accustomed to that process.
NFT’s are also a topic, as the digital possessions’ rising popularity in the media landscape is a new and unfamiliar space, making it a perfect place for some lean thinking and practice.
Key points:
- The labor shortage in the hospitality industry is a significant problem, with employment down by 1.3 million jobs since the pandemic began.
- The restaurant industry faces challenges such as high stress, low margins, and a disparity in pay between wait staff and kitchen workers.
- Some restaurant owners are addressing these issues by raising wages, offering benefits, and creating a more stable and supportive work environment.
- Lean thinking can help businesses in the hospitality industry by leveling out workloads, designing more routine and less physically demanding work, and improving processes to reduce stress and increase efficiency.
- Lean thinking should not be blamed for supply chain problems, as it is a misconception to equate lean with reducing inventory levels. Lean is about improving processes and creating value, not just maximizing profits for executives and shareholders.
The Future of People at Work Symposium
Collaborating on the Challenges Ahead.
I enjoyed listening to the first and third sections of this podcast. The rigors of restaurant work could be lessened with a systemic approach to the work restaurant-wide, like helping the critical flow (cooking) move without interruptions through the support of feeder tasks (grating the cheese). Coupling process development with product development is also a useful idea.
The section on NFT was unanticipated and refreshing to hear in the Lean world and I think it expands the discussions so that this world does not become an “echo chamber” which is what I felt during the second segment on SC.
Good job!
Hi Jen – sorry for the slow reply. We post the transcript of our podcasts just below the title. Click the link that reads ‘Download podcast transcript’.
Please make these readable. I’m in an open office with a number of other folks and can’t handily listen to a podcast.