The Big Five of Operational Truth
Most operational problems are more complicated than they first appear. Inventory is wrong. A production order is late. A pallet cannot be found. A machine is waiting for material. A customer shipment misses its date. A quality issue appears. The instinct is usually to ask for more data, but after years of working with operating teams, I have found that many complicated problems reduce to five remarkably simple questions. We call them the Big Five of Operational Truth.
August 20, 2026
