In Starbucks headquarters lies a technology lab that is plotting the firm’s renewal. That includes rethinking the onerous path its baristas must take to make a Frappuccino. Inside the massive space, baristas working in a mock-up of a cafe walked back and forth between refrigerators, blenders and syrups to make a single blended coffee topped with cold foam and caramel drizzle. They asked if the company could build kitchens that bring the equipment closer together (see the topic of layout in Chapter 9) and make syrup pumps, milk dispensers and ice bins that work better.
“Starbucks, the chain that made espresso ubiquitous, now faces daily crises in dispensing it,” writes The Wall Street Journal (Sept. 1, 2022). U.S. stores designed a decade ago struggle to meet today’s consumer demand. Cafes that once averaged 1,200 orders a day are now asked to make 1,500. Workers have been pressing for better pay, staffing levels and hours. Turnover has shot up. One in 4 baristas are quitting their jobs within 90 days, up from 1 in 10 previously.
So Starbucks also has been testing how to overhaul operations to improve the experience for both employees and customers. If employees spend less time running around fetching foam and carrying 20-pound buckets of ice, maybe they will be happier working there.
As Starbucks expanded, so did its menu (see Chapter 5). It started serving Frappuccinos in 1995, and pumpkin spice latte and other flavors followed. Warm sandwiches came in 2003. It introduced cold brew and draft nitro coffee in the 2010s. In 2015, the company launched an app that allowed customers to pay for their drinks ahead of time and to customize their coffee orders in 170,000 ways!
The firm expects workers to deliver handcrafted beverages fast. A store clipboard, used to track workers’ drive-through delivery times, said “Expectations: Under 50 Seconds.” But stores are heavily restricted by design and need a remodel to cope. Starbucks has upgraded equipment periodically, including adding espresso machines that can pull 3 shots for complex orders, rather than 2. It conducted motion studies (our topic in Chapter 10) to measure how long it took baristas to walk across the floor to pump extra syrup, among other tasks.
Engineers mocked up designs for the cafe prep area, producing prototypes with 3-D printers. Technicians studied milk dispensers, ice machines and the size of dispensers for strawberries. “Every second matters with customers waiting,” says the new CEO.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What do you think Starbucks can do to improve productivity? (See Chapter 1)
- What can they do to lower turnover?