In a manufacturing company, the IT Director, let’s call him Andrés, was convinced that technology was the solution to operational problems. Every time production reported delays, a new dashboard was developed. If inventories did not reconcile, another module was added to the system. If finance encountered issues, additional software was purchased to integrate it with operations.
The organisation accumulated licences, urgent developments and parallel spreadsheets. Reports became increasingly sophisticated. Yet delays and inventory discrepancies continued to surface.
One day, in a particularly tense meeting, the plant manager remarked: “We have more systems than certainties.”
In process engineering there is a powerful analogy: treating symptoms is like mopping the floor while the pipe is still leaking. The water keeps coming back. One can improve the mopping technique, buy better buckets or assign more staff… but until the valve is shut and the leak repaired, the cost will continue to accumulate.
The new dashboards merely masked the lack of discipline in data entry. Additional modules concealed poorly defined processes. Automated alerts attempted to compensate for operational rules that had never been standardised.
Instead of asking which report was missing, the team began asking a more uncomfortable question: Are our processes truly under control before we attempt to digitalise them?
Addressing root causes in information technology does not mean buying more tools or developing more modules. It means pausing to map processes, measure data quality, challenge assumptions and, often, accept that the system itself is designed to produce the problem. Digitalising an unstable process only accelerates the error.
The lesson is clear: in manufacturing, digital efficiency is not measured by the number of tools and developments implemented, but by the robustness of the processes that support them.
In intelligent management, true leadership lies not in proudly holding the mop, but in having the courage to shut off the valve.
Jaime Moreno
