Efficiency Tip: Lunch-time

At Inside Out Design, a design/build and maintenance firm based in Frankfort, Ky., efficiency has improved since the company implemented a bring-your-lunch-to-work policy. Co-owner Andrea Wilson Mueller estimates it saves nearly a man-hour per day, in addition to other benefits.

For the company’s first few years, workers routinely left job sites to take their breaks and pick up lunch. In addition to the lost time it took to pick up lunch, eat and return (which often ran over the 30 minutes allotted), it cost the company in fuel and added the risk of having trucks on the road more than necessary.

Now, crews bring their own lunches. “They get a longer break because they aren’t driving and rushing to eat, and I definitely think this increases efficiency,” Mueller says.

As a bonus, the company added a microwave to each vehicle so workers can have a hot lunch.

“Our customers think it’s the best thing ever,” Mueller says. “It’s great for the customer to see that we’re staying on the job site until it’s complete.”