We all fondly imagine that the TPS and lean permeate everything Japanese. And what could be more Japanese than conveyor belt sushi?

My wife and I went out for a quick sushi lunch yesterday. It was fairly quiet being a late August holiday Monday in London. The conveyor was not doing much business but I was alarmed to see the assistant preparing more and more plates and adding them to stock in increasingly precarious piles behind the conveyor belt.

Got an assistant with nothing to do? Get them to make for stock apparently.