Written by: David Carneal – Digital Efficiency Consulting Group – DECG
Read Time: 2 min
Somewhere in every company, there's a beautiful strategy document…and right next to it, a process that makes that strategy physically impossible. How to identify recurring issues, quantify them, and turn them into a waste-reduction plan.
Recurring pain is not random
If the same issue repeats weekly, it's not an employee problem. It's a process loop. People don't wake up excited to redo work; the system is forcing them.
How to find your 'water torture' loop
- Ask: What issue shows up in every leadership meeting?
- Ask: What problem always triggers expediting?
- Ask: Which step 'usually' causes errors (usually = predictable)?
- Pull 30 days of tickets, emails, or escalations and group them into themes.
Turn pain into numbers
Pick the top theme. Quantify it: hours spent, delayed shipments, credits issued, rework percentage, overtime, lost sales. If you don't measure it, it stays a 'complaint' instead of becoming a target.
Three fixes that work in almost every industry
- Define 'standard work' and the definition of done for the step that keeps failing.
- Create a simple exception path (what to do, who decides, how fast).
- Remove the upstream cause, not the downstream symptom (stop paying for the same mistake twice).
CTA: DECG helps you move from 'we're always firefighting' to 'we have a plan.' I map the loop, quantify the cost, identify the root drivers, and prioritize fixes so you get relief quickly while building long-term stability.