Living Lean: Belinda, Bags, and Batches

Abstract

This case is part of the "Living Lean" series, which presents accessible, everyday scenarios for a Lean process improvement journey. In this episode on batching, a woman rushing to the grocery store on Thanksgiving is sensitive to the relative merits and waste of two types of checkout aisle. Excerpt UVA-OM-1466 Rev. Oct. 24, 2013 LIVING LEAN: Belinda, Bags, and Batches Illustrations by Michael Twery. Around 2:00 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, as guests began to arrive, Belinda took the turkey, glistening and brown, out of the oven. She had left just enough time to whip up some gravy on the stovetop and warm up the mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole that had been cooked the day before. As her friends and family entertained themselves and waited for mealtime, Belinda peered into cabinets that had not been cleaned out in over a year and failed to find any flour for the gravy. All the activity was starting to give her a headache, so she took some ibuprofen. . . .