Module 1 of 8
Department diagnosis
Map what actually happens, not what the process document says.
Follow one real item through the whole function and record every hand-off, wait and decision. Then ask the people who do the work what they do when it goes wrong. The gap between the documented process and the answer to that second question is where automation projects fail.
Time each step, including the waiting. Almost always the bottleneck turns out to be a queue rather than a task — something sitting in an inbox for two days between two steps that each take four minutes. Automating the four-minute steps and leaving the two-day queue is the classic expensive mistake.
Map the real process by following one item end to end, and time the waiting as carefully as the work.