Might a Business Become More Fragile by Removing Every Small Inefficiency?
What looks like waste may sometimes be protection.
Sometimes. Eliminating every reserve can make systems vulnerable to disruption.
A company minimizes inventory, staffing reserves, and delivery buffers to maximize efficiency.
The hidden mechanism is resilience erosion. Small reserves often absorb unexpected events before they become major failures.
A micro-scene illustrates this clearly: operations run perfectly for months until one delayed shipment disrupts an entire production schedule.
Efficiency improves performance under normal conditions. Resilience determines what happens when conditions stop being normal.
