What we've learned from Subway

I eat the same menu every morning and lunch. Subway runs a monthly event where you can get a different kind of sandwich for 7,800 won, including a sandwich + drink + cookie at a discount. The price is reasonable and it's nutritious. I like that I don't have to worry about choosing a menu, and it saves me time.

Going there daily made me observe Subway's serving process closely. From the server's perspective, my set menu requires arranging 1 sandwich + cookie + cup on a tray to complete service. If Subway's workflow designer was incompetent, they would have created the manual like this:

1. Complete the sandwich
2. Place the sandwich, cookie, and cup on the tray
3. Click ‘Ready’ for this order

But Subway's actual serving method was slightly different. When my order number (132) appeared as complete on the monitor and I went to pick it up, just as I reached the counter, they placed the cookies in a bag onto the tray and said, “Take the cup and pour your drink.” I suspect Subway's manual might actually be this way.

1. Complete the sandwich
2. Place the sandwich on the tray
3. Click ‘Ready’ for the relevant order document
4. Place cookies on the tray
5. Shout ‘Take your cup!’

This method has two major advantages.

1) Packaging cookies and placing them on the tray while the customer walks over saves about 30 seconds.

2) By having customers take their own cups instead of servers placing them, we save about 10 seconds.

You might think, “What's 40 seconds?” But calculating with 200 daily visitors, each store saves 133 minutes daily. Considering annual or global Subway store counts, this is a massive improvement.


In the software development outsourcing market, every minute and second is money.

We must constantly ponder:
- How can we increase development speed?
- How can we reduce communication time with clients?