Anisu |

Jun/10

9

If you think you’ve seen efficiency, try the USA

10 Comments | Posted by Anisu in anisu

Whenever I travel to developing or less developed countries, one thing that stands out is how inefficiently these places run.
The classic example is the restaurant. You often see more staff than customers, seemingly struggling to find something to do. Yet when you ask for the bill, you still have to wait for a long while. Coming from the UK where you expect waiters to be running around and trying to get you to eat fast and go, this seems very peculiar.
My transit though Atlanta though made me question how efficient even the UK is.
Apparently, this airport is by some distance the busiest in the world. Yet when you are here, you won’t be blamed to think this place is smaller and less busy than Stansted.
I recall once reading an article about Easyjet – back then a new business model for Europe. The article described with fascination how people queue up to board before the plane has even arrived to the jetway, and how airports no longer read the calls to board.
Here, this seems old school. Here people aren’t actually queuing and pretending getting on a plane is a big event. The announcement to board is read by a computer. The door opens by a computer. People land, run around the terminal and get to the plane by the departure time or they get rebooked on the next one. There is no real “waiting area” by the gate. No duty free shopping. Generally people arrive “just in time”, walk to the next plane, and off they go again.
It goes on. If you miss your flight, you scan your passport on a machine that prints a new boarding pass for the next one and a meal voucher. Customer service “desks” are actually staffed by telephones, not people, that connect you to a call centre. Flight departure times look peculiar (mine leaves at 5:23). 10 minutes late is considered a “delay”.
Pilots don’t arrive in style with the crew. They run from one gate to the next to catch the next flight, often picking up a McDonalds to go on the way.
The experience feels like I am travelling in a fast food restaurant where every process is programmed for as little human intervention as possible.
The whole thing is so efficient that I feel if any of these businesses set off to run something in Europe, they would clear millions and make Easyjet look as archaic as British Airways.
The question, of course, is why they don’t. This is a fundamental one. The US has always shown to the world how to do things, and made an economy out of this. The failure to continue this model is at the heart of the current crisis.
One explanation I can find is that politically, it is now “cool” to not be like an American. What once would be considered an innovation, would now be deemed a step backwards. In that sense, the US would need to re-invent its image and relationships with the rest of the world, and become a place people aspire to again.
Another possible explanation is that Americans themselves no longer feel they are part of a wider world which they can look out to. By focussing on their very narrow political discourse, they have forgotten that their future is in looking outwards, not inwards.
In the latter case, this would be a very interesting lesson for Europe. At this difficult time, the media focusses on internal matters, ignoring even what happens within EU borders. Perhaps the solution is quite the opposite.

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10 Comments for If you think you’ve seen efficiency, try the USA

mama | June 10, 2010 at 11:57 am

Einai wraio na zh kaneis etsi?

lotv | June 10, 2010 at 2:33 pm

The funny thing is that it’s the American terrorism hysteria that has turned our flights far more complicated in Europe. We know the easy way to travel. Nobody asks you who you are, what you carry, where you go or why when you travel by train bus or boat. I believe that airplanes are more complicated for 2 main reasons, firstly people still expect some luxurious accommodation with shops selling expensive perfumes and whiskeys, air companies serving meals, beautiful stewards etc. Secondly, even nowadays, flying 40.000 feet above the ground at an almost sonic speed, seems to terrify many, and however a lot of people find annoying having to show the contents of their hand bag, it makes the rest feel safe.

After seeing this, you must admit that the dubai national airport by selling gold paid by cash, really does make a difference. The difference of service quality is mc donalds vs a 100-pound italian restaurant.

Rachey | June 10, 2010 at 4:46 pm

I don’t want my pilot to be munching on a Maccy Ds whilst he steers the plane. That’s all I have to say on the matter. :-P

lotv | June 11, 2010 at 1:23 pm

Of course you want him to chew mac donalds! Do you expect them to stay without food and water during the london-atlanta flight?

Dionysis | June 11, 2010 at 1:59 pm

“The US has always shown to the world how to do things”

So wrong, but I don’t have the time to elaborate on this. For a brief explanation try comparing and contrasting the American and Japanese aumototive industries from the 80’s onwards. There is a difference between preaching (academia – US) and practising (industry – JP).

Oh, and about the whole travel efficiency thing: it comes at a very unattractive cost, for the “unlucky” ones that is (see link below).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/flyingcheap/view/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist

Author comment by Anisu | June 12, 2010 at 1:40 pm

Of course the USA has always shown the way to the world. There would be no planes (or cars for that matter) without their innovations.

Rachey | June 12, 2010 at 2:15 pm

Dimi, Macdonalds is not ‘food’. :-P

Author comment by Anisu | June 12, 2010 at 10:46 pm

Not just food. Good food!

Dionysis | June 13, 2010 at 11:00 pm

Disagree. Sorry Yanni, but you need to do your homework. Assuming you are correct, however,
then the USA must be a lot like Greece: they are credited with industrialising car production, yet they managed to to drive their own car industry to near extiction, by consistently producing sub par products. Sounds familiar?

I think I’ve made my point.

Author comment by Anisu | June 15, 2010 at 12:54 am

They would be credited with inventing the first car, and the first plane, and being the first to industrialise these innovations. It’s a fact that when Henry Ford was making cars, everyone else was still breeding horses.

There followed a period when the US would be the “model” upon which cars were built.

And after that a period when it was the “model” upon which cars should never be built.

Yes, a bit like Greece.

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