Case Studies
Expand a case study card to view key details, category, process type, keywords, and PDF links.
WHEN THE BOTTLENECK IS THE FRONT DOOR
How a 40-Year-Old System, a Flood of Orders, and Zero Automation Nearly Buried a Specialty Lens Manufacturer
GP Specialists (GPS) was drowning in international distributor orders where a single order required 16–40 hours of manual data entry. After redesigning the order workflow and automating key steps, the backlog was eliminated and the solution was delivered ahead of schedule and below budget.
BUILDING ON A BROKEN FOUNDATION
How LEGO’s Process Failures Nearly Toppled an Empire — and What Every Business Can Learn From It
DECG Point of View — This is an independent analysis of a well-documented case, not a DECG client engagement. By 2003, LEGO was hemorrhaging $1 million per day. Sales had plummeted 30% year-over-year, debt hit $800 million, operating margins collapsed from 18–19% to 2.4%, and private equity firms were circling. Bankruptcy was being spoken openly for the first time in the company’s 71-year history.
WHEN THE MACHINE STOPS WORKING
How IBM Lost $16 Billion in Two Years, Fired 100,000 People and Discovered That Process Efficiency Was Never Optional
DECG Point of View — This is an independent analysis of a well-documented case, not a DECG client engagement. IBM in the early 1990s is not the fairy tale you are looking for. This is the story where the building is on fire, the sprinklers are on fire, and someone is still asking, Should we loop in Legal before we put out the fire?
WHEN THE DISCOUNT DISAPPEARED
How a Quiet Configuration Toggle, an Informal Exception Process, and Three Years of Inaction Cost a Buying Group $45,000 a Month
C&E Vision Services experienced a steady decline in discount-loss revenue despite no improvement in member payment behavior. An operational review uncovered that temporary hardship exceptions were being applied in the system but rarely removed, allowing hundreds of accounts to bypass the fee. By implementing a phased reactivation plan and automating the reset of financial controls each month, the organization restored accountability and recovered approximately $30,000 per month in lost revenue.
WHEN REPORTS BREAK THE SYSTEM
How a Workflow Diagnosis Prevented a $1M Mistake
The organization believed inconsistent order entry performance in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations was caused by employee productivity issues or system limitations that might require a costly replacement. Using the DECG FLOW, WF5, and CPS frameworks, the workflow was analyzed step-by-step, revealing that unnecessary product lookups and resource-heavy reporting processes were creating system drag. After removing the unnecessary workflow step and moving reporting to a centralized data environment, system performance improved dramatically, increasing order throughput by about 15% and reducing report times from up to 90 minutes to under three seconds. The improvements eliminated the need for a potential $500K–$1.5M system replacement and generated enterprise-wide operational gains.