Teams often start building and then try to reconstruct what the process cost previously. The numbers rarely survive scrutiny.
Collect for two to four weeks
- Volume of work items and how they arrive.
- Time per item, from a sample of real work.
- Error and rework rates.
- Cycle time and wait times.
- Cost per item, including overhead.
Get the baseline signed off by the process owner. It becomes the reference everyone agrees on later.