Reference no: EM132970068

Lessons from Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Last spring you might recall a new story about Amazon workers voting to unionize at an Alabama Fulfillment Center. I came across a July 2019 video segment (Youtube Video for reference. Warehouses: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) - YouTube)

 from HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver talking about e-commerce and warehouses. For those of you who are not aware of John Oliver's HBO show, he is known for satirical coverage of news, politics and current events. Being a cable news show, language is uncensored and some might consider the satire NSFW. That being said, the news stories are generally well done. 

This particular piece talks about the warehousing steps of the fulfillment process in Logistics. As I watched the video (21 minutes in length), a lot of what we talk about in measuring process performance and balancing the needs of process performance with work system performance and models of organizational change (i.e. Leavitt) are what underlies the news and satire of this story.

I would like to hear your thoughts on this piece - aside from off-color language, what are your thoughts on the story? In particular,

1. Can you appreciate how Walmart purportedly saves $30 million in changing step stools? (Here is  further detail on that initiative (Article for Reference: Walmart will save $30 million by putting new step stools in warehouses (cnbc.com)
2. .) What is being measured and what are the changes in measurements?
3. The story shows some consequences of robotic process automation. What is being sacrificed with robotic process automation?
4. What does the story illustrate about emphasis on process performance and not the performance of all elements of a work system?
5. What dos the story illustrate about the Leavitt Model (and other models of organizational change)?
6. Is there anything else you saw from the story you'd like to share?
7. Lastly, was this story thought provoking in the context of course topics or just a gratuitous sharing of sophomoric humor and bad taste? (My apologies if you decide on the latter.)