TUE APR 12 05

		Starbucks Speed. How to serve drinks -- and food -- faster without making customers feel like "they're in an Indy-500 pit stop," is a key challenge facing Starbucks, reports Steven Gray in The Wall Street Journal. "This is a game of seconds," says Silvia Peterson, Starbucks's director of store operations, whose job it is to find ways to play that game better. It's easy to understand why Starbucks hired her: According to Mintel International Group, mintel.com, "64 percent of Americans said they pick a restaurant based on how much time they have." That's why Silvia and "her team of 10 engineers" came up with bigger ice scoops, for example. That way, baristas only had to dip once for ice, helping to "cut 14 seconds off the average preparation time for blended beverages of about one minute." Innovations like that one "have helped Starbucks outlets increase their average yearly volume by nearly $200,000, to roughly $940,000, since 1999" -- not coincidentally it takes about 30 seconds less -- or an average of about three minutes -- to complete an order at Starbucks, starbucks.com, today versus five years ago. The introduction of a new kind of staffer known as a "floater" in 2003 has also been key to greater efficiency: "The floater is like a quarterback, directing behind-the-scenes traffic, running to the storage room for syrup of coffee beans, and serving as back-up cashier or barista." They also take orders while customers are still in the line, so that their drinks are on the way before they even get to the register. The floaters certainly "added costs" but the investment has paid off: "Since their creation, floaters have shaved 20 seconds from the overall service time, largely by getting the drink-preparation process started sooner." Customers really like the effect, according to Jim Alling, president of Starbucks in the U.S.: "The customer doesn't feel like he's waiting in line," says Jim. "It's like a ballet, a well-choreographed play." He adds: "It's a real trade-off -- to move quickly, and not be rushed." It's a trade-off that's likely to become more difficult to realize as Starbucks continues "its gradual nationwide rollout of hot breakfast sandwiches. "Executives insist the 90 seconds needed to heat the sandwiches won't increase the targeted three-minute average service time." Or adversely affect product quality or order accuracy, which Starbucks says currently stands at 99.4 percent. Starbucks's execs say a hybrid convection-microwave oven should do the trick, and that sandwich floaters may be employed as well, but admit "they hope to learn more as the sandwiches are introduced in different markets." Tim Manners, editor