Automating a Broken Process Just Breaks Things Faster

Description and use

Automating a flawed process amplifies errors by removing essential human judgment.

Problem

Automating a flawed onboarding process removed essential human judgment, amplifying defects and creating more errors than the manual workflow.

Outcome

Automation amplified a subtly broken process, removing critical human judgment and increasing errors faster than the manual method.

Workflow

• 1. Identify the onboarding process to automate. 2. Map all visible steps across systems. 3. Build automation to perform those steps. 4. Deploy and monitor for errors. 5. Observe increased error rate due to missing human checks. 6. Re‑introduce human review to correct the process before full automation.

Evidence

Automation is an amplifier, not a corrective. It takes whatever the process currently produces and produces much more of it, much faster, with far greater consistency.

Source