Process Waste Audit

Find the waste

Purpose: Name the recurring shape a piece of office waste takes, so you know where else it’s hiding and what would size it.
Inputs: One process you can watch for two weeks
Timestamps, queue age, and rework signals from the systems
A walkthrough from the people who do the work
Method: Look at the process from outside, what the customer experiences, and from inside, what the work does to itself
Name what shows up on each side: waiting, being asked twice, being sent around, unclear communication outside; producing more than anyone needs, work piled up in queues, defects that survive the process, expertise spent on clerical work inside
Trace the repeated patterns back to the ambiguity causing them
Size each one: how often it happens, how long and whose time it takes, whether it reaches the customer
Output: Named patterns of waste, each sized and evidenced, ready to hand to Cut it or fix it for a decision.
Data: Accounting Email Calendar Task or project software Support or ticketing Spreadsheets and interviews

The reasoning behind this one capability, with a worked example.