Five forms of cost

Look for friction in five forms:

Money. Revenue not captured, margin surrendered, avoidable labor, rework, leakage, or excess inventory.

Time. Waiting, searching, transferring, reconciling, rewriting, chasing approval, or rebuilding knowledge.

Customer experience. Slow response, inconsistent answers, preventable error, weak personalization, or a handoff customers must manage themselves.

Speed. Decisions or actions that arrive after their value has declined.

Risk. Uncontrolled data, undocumented judgment, unreviewed output, fragile dependencies, compliance exposure, or decisions no one can explain.

A problem can touch several forms at once. Do not count them twice. The point is to see the full consequence, not inflate the case.