The Power of Batch Size Reduction at the Zoo

Lean Thinkers leverage the power of batch size reduction. I marvel that such a simple concept could have such powerful application.

I was reminded of it's power when my second-grade son, the night before his field trip to the Tampa Zoo, told me he already had his buddy for the trip.

Instead of taking a single approach where one parent or teacher is in charge of 14 children, in addition, each child had their own accountability partner.
(I know everyone does this on trips, but when it involves one of your own young'ins, it takes on new meaning.)

What's the probability of a teacher in charge of 14 students finding out quickly that something is amiss with one of the children?- all thing being equal, it's 7%, as she has to split her attention among 14 students.

How sensitive can an accountability partner on a field trip be to the status of his partner? 50%!

So batch size reduction makes defects (a missing buddy) more visible sooner, conversely, it helps to ensure quality (by creating 2 parallel systems- teacher/student accountability system, AND student/buddy system.)

The whole approach made me, as a customer of the school, very satisfied.

So how does this apply to a Greenhouse operation?

Let's take something simple, like loading a cart with potted plants, to transfer them to another location.

Do you fill the cart all the way up before you transport?

• Why?
• How many people are waiting at the next operation while you fill the entire cart?
• How many customers will miss the opportunity to see your product while you fill the entire cart?
• What if you loaded half a cart, then transported to your internal or external customer?

We often fill the entire cart because we think it's more convenient for us. But Lean tells us to focus on the customer. The voice of the customer should determine how many pots we load before we transport. And often the voice of the customer often calls for more frequent deliveries, at a reduced batch size.