International Law

Chinese Innovation and the Fa Piao Process

By Stan

Great stuff from the Freakonomics blog at the New York Times:

For a number of years I’ve been impressed with the wireless credit-card machines with which many European restaurants equip their wait-staff.

This substitution saves workers time (and also that of their customers). This technology is now adopted more widely in the U.S.

But on this trip I’ve noticed yet another innovation.

In several restaurants wait-staff have wireless devices that also allow them to punch in the customer’s order and send it directly to the kitchen — again saving labor time (walking back to the kitchen) and cutting costs.

Why is this device less prevalent in the U.S.? My guess is that it’s because labor costs are higher in Europe, so there’s a greater incentive for European restaurants to make this capital-labor substitution than for American restaurants.

I’ve seen this in restaurants over here in Beijing. Not that common, but I’ve seen it, and not just at high-end places. Great technology, I think. Anything that can reduce the number of scraps of paper floating around a typical Chinese business - I’m in favor of it. I suspect, however, that there is no button on those little wireless pads for "no salt" or "no MSG". This is a potential deal-breaker for those of us high blood pressure types.

The next great technological breakthrough in China has got to be on those machines folks use to fill out fa piao. My employer has quite a long name (in Chinese), and it usually takes about 136 minutes for the person behind the cash register to 1) figure out how to use the machine; 2) figure out how to type; and 3) enter in the long name.

There’s got to be a better way.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on June 04, 2008 (boomark / email).