“The miracle of the 7 minutes”, the incredible choreography for the cleaning of the Japanese high-speed train studied at Harvard

The international press baptized it “The miracle of the 7 minutes” because it is the stipulated time for Two teams of 44 people clean each of the 17 wagons of the 120 Shinkansen (high-speed trains) that arrive daily in the Japanese capital.

The Shinkansen, opened for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, today reaches vmaximum speeds of 320 kilometers per hour and it is synonymous with punctuality. Upon arrival at their destination, passengers have 3 minutes to release the cars, and since leaving garbage on the seats is not an option, most descend with food wrappers, used towels, crumpled newspapers and waste containers. empty drinks.

Members of the cleaning crew receive the waste, store it in a container and board. The stopwatch reads 6:59 and starts counting down. With a dizzying controlled pace, the staff clean every seat, bedside table, armrests and window. They open the curtains and, since the seats are swivel, they point them in the direction of the departure of the train.

Then they sweep the floor, change the covers that cover the headboards of the seats, and clean the bathrooms. If a seat is particularly dirty, they put a “Do not use” notice. And forgotten items are saved by recording the seat number where it was found.

When the staff goes down, the stopwatch indicates 00:00. The new passengers, who have 2 minutes to board, feel that day the feeling of a brand new car. The doors close, the train begins to walk and the housekeepers dismiss it with a posture that was once reserved for welcoming a monarch.: torso leaning forward, hands at sides and gazing down at the ground.

In a country where schools are training their students to form teams that clean classrooms, hallways and bathrooms, the 7-minute miracle has only made headlines Harvard Business School (HBS) assigned it as a compulsory case study.

More than the paradigm of its efficiency, Harvard students analyze the leadership model of Teruo Yabe, the executive called in 2005 to reform a cleaning company that suffered from organizational problems, passenger complaints and low esteem. of its employees.

Yabe replaced the harsh manuals with suggestions from the employees themselves and devised a vigorous cleaning choreography that called ththe “7 Minute Shinkansen Theater”. He embraced new wardrobe ideas, like Hawaiian shirts in the summer, and set up a promotion system that ended up boosting team morale.

Admired for his ability to reform a struggling business, Yabe also anticipated showing how to systematize hygiene.

Originally posted by RFI

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