The map is a diagnostic tool
In the previous article, you mapped a process - you described the steps, who does them, what they need, and what they produce. Now comes the most valuable part: looking at that map with a critical eye and finding places where the company loses time and money.
Most waste in processes is invisible. Nobody complains because “that’s how we’ve always done it.” But when you look carefully, you’ll see patterns that cost you dozens of hours per month.
7 types of process waste
Every process can contain one or more of these problems. Go through them and think about whether you see them in your own company.
1. Waiting
Work is done, but nobody moves it forward. An email requesting approval sits in an inbox for two days. An order waits for confirmation because the responsible person is in a meeting. A document is ready for signing, but the director won’t see it until Friday.
Waiting is the most common and most expensive type of waste. The actual work takes minutes - but waiting for the next step takes days.
2. Unnecessary steps
“We’ve always done it this way.” This sentence is a reliable indicator of an unnecessary step. Someone once introduced a check that made sense - but the situation changed and the check remained. Someone still prints a form that nobody reads. Someone still copies data into a spreadsheet that nobody uses.
Ask for every step: What happens if we skip it? If the answer is “nothing” - you have an unnecessary step.
3. Manual data re-entry
A colleague copies an order from an email into Excel. Then someone copies it from Excel into the invoicing system. And then someone else enters it into the warehouse system.
Every time data is manually copied from one place to another, you lose time and increase the risk of errors. Every re-entry is an opportunity for a typo, omission, or mix-up.
4. Handoff friction
Work moves from one person to another - and information gets lost along the way. The sales rep knows what the customer wants, but doesn’t pass it on completely to the dispatcher. A technician discovers an important detail, but doesn’t include it in the notes.
Every handoff is a potential point of loss. The more handoffs, the more gets lost.
5. Rework and corrections
An error in the order - the shipment comes back. Wrong information on an invoice - it has to be cancelled and reissued. The customer received incorrect information - now someone has to call and apologize.
Rework is expensive because you pay twice: once for the wrong work and once for the fix. Plus the loss of customer trust, which is hard to measure but costs the most.
6. Over-processing
Not everything needs triple checking. Not every document needs the director’s signature. Not every order requires a detailed analysis.
Over-processing means you’re putting more effort into a process than the customer or situation requires. An internal report for three people doesn’t need to look like an annual report.
7. Knowledge silos
Only Peter knows how to set up the label printer. Only Jana can process customs documents. Only Tomas knows the password to the old system.
When a company depends on individual people’s knowledge, it’s vulnerable. All it takes is illness, vacation, or an employee leaving - and the entire process stops.
How to measure: simple metrics
You don’t need to be a data analyst. Just track a few simple things:
- Time per process run. How many hours/days does the entire process take from start to finish? And how much of that is actual work vs. waiting?
- Number of handoffs. How many times does work pass between people? Every handoff is a risk.
- Error rate. What percentage of cases need to be corrected or returned?
- Number of customer touchpoints. How many times does the customer have to “knock” to get an answer?
Just write these things down on paper and track them for a week or two. The results will probably surprise you.
Overview: How to spot each type of waste
| Type of waste | Typical symptom | Question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Waiting | Emails sit in inboxes, tasks await approval | Where does work stall and why? Who is the bottleneck? |
| Unnecessary steps | ”We’ve always done it this way” | What happens if we skip this step? |
| Manual re-entry | Data is copied between systems/spreadsheets | How many times is the same information entered manually? |
| Handoff friction | ”But nobody told me that” | Does the next person in line get all the information they need? |
| Rework/corrections | Complaints, cancellations, repeat calls to customers | What percentage of cases need to be handled again? |
| Over-processing | Triple checks, unnecessary signatures | Is this check really necessary, or is it just a habit? |
| Knowledge silos | ”You’ll have to ask Peter about that” | What happens when this person is unavailable? |
A real-world story: An accounting firm with 25 employees
FinCount (fictional name) handles accounting for 80 clients. Management felt the team was falling behind and was considering hiring two more people.
Before deciding, they mapped their invoice processing workflow. From receiving a client’s invoice to recording it in the books.
What they found:
The process had 11 steps. It looked like this:
- Client sends invoice by email (PDF)
- Assistant saves it to a folder on the shared drive
- Assistant logs it in a tracking spreadsheet in Excel
- Accountant opens the PDF and re-enters the data into the accounting system
- Accountant checks the data by comparing with the PDF
- Accountant updates the status in the tracking spreadsheet
- If something is unclear - accountant emails the client
- Client responds (sometimes within an hour, sometimes a week later)
- Accountant corrects the record
- Senior accountant reviews
- Senior accountant confirms in the tracking spreadsheet
4 of the 11 steps were pure data copying - from email to folder, from folder to Excel, from PDF to the system, from the system back to Excel. No added value, just moving information from one place to another.
Estimated loss: 15 hours per week. In a team of 25 people, that meant three people were essentially doing nothing useful for one full day each week.
The solution wasn’t hiring two new employees. The solution was eliminating unnecessary data copying - automatic invoice import into the system, removing the duplicate tracking spreadsheet, and introducing direct client communication through a portal instead of email.
Where to start: the priority matrix
When you find multiple problems at once (and you will), you need a way to decide what to tackle first.
Use a simple 2x2 matrix:
| Low effort | High effort | |
|---|---|---|
| High impact | Do it now. Quick wins that deliver immediate results. | Plan it. Important, but requires preparation and time. |
| Low impact | Consider it. If it’s quick, why not. But don’t expect miracles. | Forget it (for now). Lots of work, little effect. Save it for later. |
Always start in the top-left corner: high impact, low effort. These are your quick wins. Things you can change this week and immediately feel the difference.
Examples of quick wins:
- Move approval responsibility to someone more available
- Eliminate a step nobody needs
- Share a spreadsheet instead of emailing attachments
- Create a simple checklist for repetitive tasks
What’s next?
Now you know how to map a process and where to look for problems. In the next article, we’ll show you how to design the target state - what the process should look like after the change and how to get there step by step, without unnecessary chaos. But you’ve already done the most important thing: you’ve looked at your company with open eyes.