Part of the Kitchen Lead track. Lesson 3 of 10.
Where in the shift: during a real rush, not by discussion.
Prerequisites: Modules 4, 43.
The sequence
Count output per station per quarter hour.
Find the lowest.
Look at what routes through it.
And fix it at the menu or the equipment, not at the schedule.
The decisions
Where to put an extra person. On the constrained task specifically — not at the constrained station generally.
Because throughput is set by the slowest station, per Module 43, and adding labor anywhere else adds contention, coordination load, and crowding without adding output.
Which produces the diagnostic worth memorizing: if adding a person made it slower, the person was not at the constraint.
And the confirmation: if times improve when the person is moved rather than removed, the constraint is correctly identified.
Whether the fix is available tonight. Frequently not. If the menu routes a third of its items through one fryer, that is the constraint by design and no staffing decision fixes a menu decision — which is a Kitchen Manager finding rather than a lead's, and the lead's job is to identify it and hand it up.
What you are reading
Output per station, counted. Not impressions — the constrained station frequently looks calm, because it works steadily at its rate while everything backs up behind it. The frantic station is often the one with slack.
And where product first accumulates.
What goes wrong here
The constraint identified by watching rather than counting. The wrong station.
Staff added at a non-constrained station. Slower.
And a menu-level constraint treated as a staffing problem, repeatedly, for months.
Verification
The count itself. Most kitchens have never made it.
And the move-versus-remove test.
The boundary
None specific.