A few weeks ago, I was headed on vacation with my family and, as we stood in the airport security line, I noticed something interesting. TSA does not use lean management practices.

Curious, I watched to see how long it took for one person to go through the line. I also counted how many times the person scanning the bags was interrupted...by his own peers.

In the five minutes it took for one person to go through security, the TSA reps were all talking to one another, and the guy scanning our bags was interrupted by five other TSA employees.

Where are the standards for one of our country's most important positions?

It's understandable standards need to vary from airport-to-airport, in order to not provide an easy way for terrorists to strike, but what I witnessed was inefficiency at its best. (more…)