Delta, Go and See For Yourself

One of the key ingredients in Toyota’s not-so-secret Toyota Production System sauce is Genchi Genbutsu, which literally means “go and see for yourself” (not to be confused with the philosophy of “go f*** yourself” wildly popular in New York). I hereby nominate Delta’s terminal #3 for the worst terminal at the JFK Airport. That filth hole can be easily fixed… if only Delta went a saw their own mess for themselves.

I was picking someone up from an international flight, and had two hours to stand there and, um, observe the following.

Pay phones

Pay phones accept only coins. Now, the US dollar is a ubiquitous currency, and just about everyone has some cabbage on hand when landing in the US. If a weary traveler needs to “call a friend” (not to knock Regis Philbin here), the phones won’t cooperate: they only take coins. How hard is to install phones that accept paper dollars or credit cards?

Which brings me to the next point.

Currency

Speaking of cabbage. There’s no currency exchange joint. Those mad stacks of cheddar of yours ain’t worth nothing to a cabby driver. He knows only the color green even if he’s color blind.

Hasn’t anyone at JFK noticed this?

Cell phone reception

This whole terminal is under ground. Hence, little to no cell reception. Mosly the latter. JFK, that’s difficult to notice, eh?

The stampede

With so many tin cans with Delta colors docking at this terminal, the flow of people is overwhelming. I don’t know if the local fire marshal realizes that the “occupancy” capacity is inadequate.

Here’s a thought, JFK: why not install a big enough screen (it don’t have to be no plasma) and hook up a camera to show who’s coming out? Difficult, right?

Wrap up

Does any of this sound familiar? This is how we develop software. If your company actually does usability testing, consider yourself very lucky because 99% (a scientific number out of my rear) don’t find usability testing sexy enough to even consider.

And yet, companies should—no, must—practice this. Otherwise they will find themselves in the Chapter 11 Club. Right there, next to Delta.