A Swedish hotel and restaurant group has been developing self-managed improvement groups within its hotels. At one hotel reception desk, staff were concerned about the amount of time the desk was left unattended. To investigate this staff began keeping track of the reasons they were spending time away from the desk and how long each absence kept them away. Everyone knew that reception desk staff often had to leave their post to help or give service to a guest. However, no one could agree what was the main cause of absence. After three months the data were reviewed, as shown in Table 18.5.

(a) Draw a Pareto diagram of the reasons that staff leave the reception desk.
(b) Do you think it was wise to spend so much time on examining this particular issue? Isn’t it a trivial issue?
(c) Should the Pareto diagram be used to reflect improvement priorities?

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Table 18.5 Summary of data showing the various services performed that require staff to leave reception unattended Services performed Faxing documents Providing extra keys Providing drinks Relaying messages to meeting rooms Making photocopies Arranging computer wireless connection Locking/unlocking meeting rooms Providing extra linen Arranging rooms Showing guests to rooms Providing medication Average frequency per shift 5 3 6 4 8 2 4 1.5 0.3 2.5 1.7 Average time taken to perform service (minutes) 4 2 2 8 5 10 4 4 15 4 3