Lesson 6.14, one day, 13 slides. Slide 5 (the example chart) stays up while teams work.
Do now
- Think about the pasta lab or the quesadilla lab.
- Write the one moment your station was standing around waiting.
- What were you waiting for?
Teacher notes
Take four answers, one per station. Nearly always the same three: the water, the oven, the teacher. Circle them.
Those are not accidents
- Those are the steps everything else waits on.
- A real kitchen builds the clock around them.
- Today you build the clock.
Teacher notes
Then the frame: "I ran four kitchens in one period off a flowchart on one page, in five-minute blocks, written so a substitute could run it. That is what you are making."
Eight blocks, five minutes each, forty minutes
- 0 to 5 SETUP
- 5 to 10 PREP
- 10 to 15 COOK START
- 15 to 20 COOK
- 20 to 25 KEY CHECK
- 25 to 30 FINISH AND PLATE
- 30 to 35 SERVE AND EAT
- 35 to 40 CLEAN UP
Teacher notes
Copy all eight labels onto the builder. Five phases: setup, prep, cook, serve and eat, clean.
The rule that makes a flowchart work
- Every block has something for every person.
- Nobody has a blank block.
- If your station finishes early, that block says SUPPORT DUTY and names who you help.
What a finished chart looks like
- 0 to 5: CRITICAL PATH, pot of hot water covered on HIGH. Sanitation. Bin checked. (Head Cook, Prep Cook, all)
- 5 to 10: Watch for a hard boil. Boxes and jars opened. 30 plates counted. (Head Cook, Prep Cook, Plate Builder)
- 10 to 15: Water boils. Pasta in. Stir. 8-minute timer. (Head Cook, Second Cook, Time Keeper)
- 15 to 20: Stir every 2 minutes. Sauce lined up. Helper Cook on SUPPORT DUTY. (Second Cook, Toppings Chief, Helper Cook)
- 20 to 25: KEY CHECK. Teacher drains at minute 19. Sauce in. Parmesan on. (Station Manager, Head Cook)
- 25 to 30: Pot to the table on a trivet. Plates down at 29. Allergen box read aloud. (all)
- 30 to 35: Class served first, then teammates, then us. (all)
- 35 to 40: Four clean zones. Station check signed. (all)
Teacher notes
Image: the same eight blocks drawn as one tall column with a red circle on block one and a star on block five.
Leave this up. Point at block 20 to 25 and say why it is called KEY CHECK: that is the minute somebody finds out whether the dish is on time.
Sticky notes into blocks
- One step per sticky note.
- For each note: how long does this take, and who does it.
- Place every note into a block. Move them until no block is empty for anybody.
Teacher notes
12 minutes. Ask one question per station: "What is happening in your 15 to 20 block? Show me."
The critical path
- Point to the step that, if it is late, makes everything after it late.
- That is your critical path.
- The pasta station's is the water boiling. Nothing else can happen until it boils, so the water goes on in block one, before anyone washes a cup.
- Circle it on your poster in a second color.
The slip test
- If your critical path step starts five minutes late:
- It finishes at minute ___ instead of ___.
- The dish is ready at minute ___.
- We eat at minute ___.
- Circle: we still eat inside the period / we do not.
Teacher notes
A real time, not "we would be late."
Three shortcuts, written before you need them
- Split the batch. Two smaller pots or trays cook faster than one big one.
- Move it. Second oven, toaster oven, microwave for part of it.
- Drop the last optional step. No second cheese layer, no garnish.
- "Work faster" is not a shortcut.
- The rule: the clock is not negotiable, the presentation is.
The station card, four parts
- Ingredients for this station
- The allergen box (the card is not approved without it)
- Ten numbered steps, one action per step
- Safety reminders, and "what does done look like"
Teacher notes
One action per step. "Boil the water, add the pasta, and set the timer" is three steps, not one.
What "done looks like" actually means
- Not: "it tastes good."
- Yes: "pasta is soft, not crunchy." "Sauce is mixed evenly." "Cheese is bubbling and the edges are brown."
- Yes: "Burner OFF. Station wiped. Pot rinsed."
Teacher notes
Four checks, each one something you can see.
The paired read
- Trade cards with the station next door.
- They write one question the card could not answer.
- Fix that step before the bell.
- The test: could a substitute teacher run this station from your card alone?
Post to the class master grid
- One person per station copies the eight blocks into your column.
- Then we read the grid across, block by block, out loud.
- We stop at the collisions: two stations on the oven, two stations needing me at the same minute, everybody plating at once.
- We fix them in red.
Teacher notes
Closure: each station reads "Our critical path is ___, it starts at minute ___, and if it slips we eat at ___." Then the whole class reads the 30 to 35 block across all four columns. Posters stay up through Lesson 6.17.