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The
Ups and Downs of Paradigms
A Parable
Or:
What I Learned Last W
eek From an Elevator Button
Every now and then I see something that causes me to just smack my
forehead and say, “Why didn’t I think of that?”
It happened to me (in this case twice) last weekend in New York
City. We stopped for a
drink at the Marriott Marquis (the 8th floor bar that
overlooks Broadway).
Since our last visit, the elevator call buttons (usually
“up” & ”down”) had been replaced with a “big-button”
numeric keypad and a digital display.
Now, if you’ve seen this before, don’t stop reading, even
though this boy from the country is just catching up with the
developed world.
Now, instead of just “telling” the elevator which DIRECTION
(Up or Down) you want to go, you put in the FLOOR you actually want.
It then flashes an elevator car number in the display, plus a
little arrow that indicates whether that car is to your left or right.
A small display at the car confirms the floors where that car
would stop.
So
what? Well, first, it’s a huge innovation in elevator car
management. The effect is
to put ALL the people who want to go to the 8th floor in
one car, and then just route it to the 8th floor (bypassing
stops on the way, I presume, since the back-end system also knows
where people on other floors want to go and can route a DIFFERENT car
to pick them up). Rough guess (without the benefit of adequate queuing theory
mathematics background) is that it probably reduces wait time, transit
time AND energy use by at least ⅓-- perhaps ½.
Ultimately, this scheme will reduce the total number of
elevators required in a tall building.
Why did I smack my forehead??
Elisha Otis invented modern passenger elevators in 1853 –
over 150 years ago. This
is only innovation in calling and routing elevator cars (other than
electric call buttons) in 150 years!
Think about it. For 150 years the paradigm has been “tell the elevator
operator (or system) which WAY you want to go, then when the next car
stops, get on and tell the elevator operator (or system) WHERE you
want to go. Amazingly
inefficient, but the DOMINANT DESIGN of elevator control for over 150
years!
Why did I smack it again?
Because every technology in this scheme has been readily
available for at least 25 years.
Elevators have been digitally controlled since the 70’s, and
you could have ordered all the necessary parts to do this (numeric
keypads, digital displays, computers, etc.) from Radio Shack in 1980. This routing innovation could have been accomplished with
off-the-shelf parts over 2 decades ago.
So, what was the delay? The
call button paradigm. Elevators
have always had call buttons. They
need them, don’t they? Apparently
elevator engineers were so used to asking “which way” instead of
“where” you wanted to go that the original “call button”
paradigm wasn’t challenged.
Questions:
- How
can you use readily available technology to ask a customer WHERE
he wants to go, rather than bothering him with deciding WHICH WAY?
- Can
you eliminate unnecessary activities that are left over from the
past – things for which the original reason has been long
forgotten?
- Is
everything you do really necessary, really useful, or perhaps even
getting in the way of the best possible solution?
- What
paradigms need to be challenged in your business?
It’s hard to innovate without focus. Consider, perhaps, looking for waiting, queuing or
sequential steps in your customer service, delivery, or
administrative processes. There’s
probably a better, faster and cheaper way in there somewhere.
Let us know if you find some
Terry Weaver
CEO
Chief Executive Boards International
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