Question

Field Research

Visit a Subway™ sandwich location and observe the product creation and customer service processes in place there that you will reflect on in the following writing and discussion assignments. NOTE - As a courtesy to the employees I suggest that you explain why you are there and perhaps they may be open to you asking questions related to their process.

Based upon your observations of the Subway™ processes, prepare a short paper. And, to guide our Discussion from your field research, identify and describe an example for each of the following lean principles and tools that you observed in practice) I. Visual Management. ii. Pull production. iii. Assemble to order. iv. Work load balance/production leveling (you may have to visit at a busy and a slack time for comparison). v. Kanban. vi. Quick changeover. vii. Standardized work. viii. Employee flexibility/Cross Training. ix. Any Other(s) - From your field research, identify examples where you observed any of the various types of waste either avoided or mitigated in the Subway™ process flow.

Answer 1

Visual Management- When I visited Subway I did see visual management. The people preparing the sandwich ask the customers which vegetables and sauces would they like to put in their sandwich. All vegetables and sauces are in front of the customers and they can see and choose.

Pull production- In subways the most important factor is that it is demand based. This means that the sandwiches are prepared in front of the customer meaning that only if there is demand will there be production. Thus Pull production is seen and this saves food from being wasted.

Assemble to order- This was also seen as the assembly of the sandwich will only start once there is an order for it.

Work load balance/production leveling- Subway is a master in this. When I went there were 4 staff on the production line. One was toasting bread, the other aligning vegetables, the 3rd putting sauces and the 4th was doing the billing. It was all very systematic and quick and avoided delay as much as they could. This is why subway is a great example of balancing the work load.