Tuesdays Wall Street Journal has an article about the Dutch takeover of
JFK airports International Arrivals building. The Dutch have some
interesting ideas on how to clean it up:
In Amsterdam, the tile under Schiphols urinals would pass inspection in an
operating room. But nobody notices. What everybody does notice is that
each urinal has a fly in it. Look harder, and the fly turns into the black
outline of a fly, etched into the porcelain.
It improves the aim, says Aad Kieboom. If a man sees a fly, he aims at
it. Mr. Kieboom, an economist, directs Schiphols own building expansion.
His staff conducted fly-in-urinal trials and found that etchings reduce
spillage by 80%.
We will put flies in the urinals — yes, Jan Jansen says in a back office
at the Arrivals Building. He is the new Dutch general manager, the boss as
of noon today. It gives a guy something to think about. Thats the
perfect example of process control.
His New York public relations attendant titters. Fine, laugh at me, Mr.
Jansen says. It works.