A supplier sends a cheaper quote. A week later, the freight bill arrives. The bargain has disappeared.
That is the sort of detail a business diagram can hide. It is also where The Rebuild begins.
One company. Two pictures. One thing to try.
Every Thursday, we take a familiar company apart: how it gets paid, what makes customers come back, and what has to happen behind the scenes for the business to work.
Then we redraw it as if it were starting today. Where could software do useful work? Who still needs to check it? Which advantages come from warehouses, relationships, judgment or years of earning trust?
The two diagrams let you compare the answers. The point is to find a change you can test in a small corner of your own work.
First up: Costco
Costco is a good place to start because the work refuses to stay inside a screen. Someone has to choose the merchandise, buy it, move it, put it on a shelf and make the numbers add up.
The first Rebuild arrives Thursday, October 15. It follows the buying process, then asks where a smaller team could use AI to prepare decisions while keeping the buyer responsible for the order.
A practical example follows three olive-oil quotes. The lowest case price turns out to have the highest cost per usable bottle. Once you include freight and order size, the choice gets more interesting.
What a useful Rebuild has to show
The current company comes from sources. The redesigned company is a proposal. Each issue will make that distinction clear, show its arithmetic and point out the work the proposed system still leaves to a person.
The main essays and diagrams are free. We are also building practical companions: comparison sheets, worked examples and small tests you can repeat. A companion earns its place by helping you do something, rather than making the essay longer.
For now, start with one question: what recurring job would you most like to make less tedious?
Leave the job in the comments. “Preparing three supplier quotes for approval” tells us more than “using more AI.”
The Rebuild