Act I · The claim economy
Operational excellence runs on documents that can’t answer questions.
Billions in claimed savings. Millions of certified belts. And almost none of it can survive a single follow-up question. Not because people are dishonest — because the artifacts were never built to be checked.
The certificate
It proves someone passed an exam on a Tuesday. It says nothing about whether they ever improved a real process.
The savings slide
"$2.4M annualized." Built in a spreadsheet, presented once, archived forever. Nobody can audit how the number was made.
The ROI promise
A consultant’s guarantee, priced into the proposal. When the engagement ends, so does the accountability.
The problem isn’t the work. It’s that the work leaves no evidence.