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// Case #01
The strip that covered five days of work
Estimated Leak Cost
~4,800 PLN · 3 people × 5 days × 8 h × 40 PLN/h (example)
01Situation
Subfloor finishing for linoleum flooring on a large project in Scandinavia. Three-person crew, supervision: overall project manager plus flooring contractor. Standard job, clear scope — theoretically.
Days 1–3: crew lays wood-based panels, assuming a reasonable joint tolerance of ~4 mm. Nobody specified on entry that for this material the tolerance must be a maximum of 2 mm. The requirement existed — it didn't trickle down before anyone touched the material. Three days of three people's work goes to rework.
Days 4–5: second attempt — precise, under correct joints so the flooring lies without grooves. Heavy, precise work.
After the fact: PM together with flooring contractor decide that in these places a metal strip will run along the entire length anyway. The strip covers exactly what the crew struggled with for the last two days. The decision invalidating the work is made after it's done, not before.
| Stage | Work | Status after Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Days 1–3 | 3 people × 3 days laying | rework (tolerance not specified at entry) |
| Days 4–5 | 3 people × 2 days precise work | covered by strip — redundant work |
02Where Margin Escaped
Not in material. Not in crew skills. In information that arrived too late. Up to ~15 man-days burdened by coordination error, not execution — borne by the contractor, generated higher up.
03Root Cause
Both losses have the same source: decision made after the work instead of before. The 2 mm tolerance existed as a requirement — it wasn't communicated before the first panel. The strip was a sensible solution — decided two days too late.
!How we aim to close it
The aim is that a task would not move to execution without a complete set of requirements — tolerance would be a required field, not a verbal “I think it was in the project” — and a design change would enter the system with date and time, set against work status. Today Desk records tickets, photos and status changes with a date; technical requirements and the cost of a change are a direction.
Read Next Story
“I said” ≠ “He understood”
Most leaks in this series are results of a single gap: nobody confirms that the message went through.
Boards with no safety data sheet
A worker was told to strip out 'wood-based boards'. They were bituminous — dust that irritates the airways. A week without a mask, because nobody attached the safety data sheet to the task. A month of sick leave. The bill for one missing sheet of paper: ~18,000 PLN. Preventing it cost a mask worth a few tens of złoty.