Steakhouse technique in a factory Feb 12
20 comments Latest by Pat Hall
In “Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace” [Amazon], Ricardo Semler talks about the red/green tag system workers used at one of his Brazilian company’s plants.
The factory committee spun off groups that studied the plants products and how the workers made them, looking for ways to save time and make improvements…One group came up with a system in which all the parts for the dishwashers were stocked in open racks in the middle of the factory. Metal tags, green on one side and red on the other, hung on each rack, and the workers would flip the tags when they saw it was time to reorder, ensuring a steady supply.
Reminds me of dining at Fogo de Chão, a Brazilian steakhouse (aka churrascaria) with locations here in the USA.
Each guest uses a two-sided disk to control the pace of their meal. The green side signals the Gaucho chefs to bring out skewers of sizzling fire-roasted meats to carve at the table. The red side indicates a stopping point. Turning back to green lets the Gaucho chefs know to start offering the meats again.
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20 comments so far
Benjy 12 Feb 08
This reminds me… I need to finish reading this book. Got about 3/4 through it when on vacation last month.
Guess it’s not too much of a stretch for a Brazilian company to usurp a technique from Brazilian restaurants… on the other hand, many companies probably don’t look for solutions outside their company/industry.
BTW , the red sides of the Fogo de Chao tiles are just a rumor—I don’t believe they actually exist! Who would really want to stop a steady progression of grilled meats being laid in front of you?
Arturo 12 Feb 08
Fogo de Chao… I’ve never eaten so much in my life. As a joke we’d flip people’s tag over to green to make them “suffer” through another round of meat.
velk 12 Feb 08
Reminds me of a restaurant in Colorado. The place was enormous with live theater, a big indoor water fall, and walls sculpted to look like a cave.
To get a waiter to stop, you raised a little flag that set on the table. Then any waiter walking by would stop and check on you. Totally removed the server stopping by every 3 seconds to see if things are OK, or conversely never coming back to refill a drink… but I digress.
ceejayoz 12 Feb 08
Man, Fogo de Chão was one of the best meals of my life. I must have eaten two or three full pounds of meat…
Dominik 12 Feb 08
Isn’t that basically a simple Kanban system?
Justin 12 Feb 08
Mmmmm… Meat coma.
There’s a place here in Raleigh called Rio Currascaria that is beyond stellar. $25 a head can’t be beat either (there’s a small franchise place in the area also called Brasa, which is fancy but $35 a head and definitely lacking in key tastiness demos).
Greg 12 Feb 08
Reminds me of my favorite restaurant in Panama – La Cascada. There was a red light on each table. Turn it on and the waiter would come check on you. Great system!
—Greg
Felipe Koch 12 Feb 08
Good to see some appreciation for one of the few things we manage to do well in Brazil: churrasco!
That and of course Gisele Bündchen, Alessandra Ambrosio…
Benjy 12 Feb 08
Bountiful grilled meats, great weather and georgous supermodels… why don’t we all live in Brazil?
Ken 12 Feb 08
Great, thanks a lot, now I’m really hungry…
Tim 12 Feb 08
@Dominik
Yes, unfortunately Fogo de Chão and the likes use red/green which becomes confusing for us color blind people.
Tom 12 Feb 08
This is a standard churrascaria technique found all over Brazil, which is why it worked so well at a Brazilian company – everyone already knew what the red/green indicators were showing them.
Charley 12 Feb 08
@velk: That’s Casa Bonita! Anytime I visit my family in Denver, I make them go there. There’s even a South Park episode about the place.
Eberhard Eltius Schmeezenkreutz 12 Feb 08
Yeah I’m pretty sure this is on like page 3 of the “Complete Idiot’s Guide to Kanban”, not that that makes it any less good of an idea. Rather, it now contains two patterns, the “Use Kanban Where Possible” pattern and the “Steal Your Practices from the Very Best” pattern.
sbhebert 12 Feb 08
Fogo de Chao was my immediate thought too. Interesting to know that this is kind of a Brazilian “thang”.
Josh Walsh 12 Feb 08
There’s a similar Brazilian steakhouse here in Cleveland… the Braza grille.
Don’t eat all day, go there for dinner and wake up with a meat hangover.
Silvio Eberardo 13 Feb 08
It is good to see that our brazilians churrascarias are doing great in the U.S. – Fogo de Chão is the best churrascaria in São Paulo, where it is originally from, for sure.
By the way, I am hungry, let´s go to a churrascaria now… ;-)
SIlvio
JBagley 13 Feb 08
The disk system for bringing more food reminds me of a really great restaurant I have eaten at in Namibia – Iitumba
On your “plate” – actually a thick wooden chopping board – you have a small flag that you keep raised for the chef to bringing the fantastic wild game meat (also on skewers), and lower it, when you just cannot stomach another bite.
Lucas 13 Feb 08
@Tim
Actually, the disks here in Brazil have “Sim, Por favor/Não, Obrigado” (Yes please/No, thanks) written on them. So it wouldn´t be a problem for you :).
And, next time any of you go to a churrascaria, don´t get out without drinking Caipirinha. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caipirinha)
I´ll be at railsconf, so people interested in drinking/learning how to make it look for me there.
Pat Hall 15 Feb 08
As a vegetarian I skip straight to the caipirinhas! Now that’s a proper hangover.
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