Before anything gets automated, it has to be clear what actually happens today — not what the org chart says. This category collects articles on taking stock: how to record workflows without bringing operations to a halt, how to make media breaks and duplicate data entry visible, how to put a figure on what a single case really costs, and which criteria decide which process gets tackled first. That includes the opposite finding: recognising where manual work should stay, because the case is too rare or too dependent on judgement. We describe approaches that work in mid-size companies without a dedicated department — together with the people who carry out the workflow every day, rather than over their heads. Wherever figures appear, the source is named.
Process improvement for companies under 30 staff: why big digitisation projects fail, how one workflow at a time works and what each step really costs.
How to measure and shorten lead times: why waiting dominates, how to reconstruct it from existing timestamps and which three levers work in mid-sized companies.
Where do orders pile up, who is waiting for an approval? How to measure waiting time against handling time, find the real bottleneck and respond to it properly.
A process map for mid-size companies: core, management and supporting processes on one page — with a clear level of detail, named owners and a revision rhythm.
Effort versus impact, frequency versus error rate, dependencies first: how a mid-size company decides which workflow gets touched before all the others.
Costing a process without a controlling project: volume times handling time times hourly rate, plus error and waiting cost, and how to get sound figures.
Typing the same data again and again: why duplicate entry arises, what it costs and the three routes out: a leading system, an interface, or file transfer.
Kick-off, walkthrough, system inventory, evaluation, report: what really happens in a process analysis, what to prepare and what it deliberately leaves out.
Find and rank media breaks: follow the document instead of the org chart, set counting points, ask the people involved and sort findings by volume and time.