David Carneal

David Carneal

David Carneal is the Principal and Head Consultant at the Digital Efficiency Consulting Group. With over 20 years in process efficiency, change management and workflow development he has help companies elevate wasted time and grow profitability with ease.

About

David Carneal is the Founder and Principal of Digital Efficiency Consulting Group (DECG), where he helps organizations turn messy operations into systems that actually work. He specializes in process optimization, workflow redesign, and practical digital transformation for small-to-mid-sized businesses across manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and healthcare-adjacent industries.

With a career spanning operations, technology implementation, and business process improvement, Carneal is known for a simple philosophy: small improvements create real change. Rather than pursuing disruptive overhauls that stall out in planning documents, he focuses on identifying friction points inside everyday workflows, quantifying their real business impact, and delivering execution-ready roadmaps that teams can use immediately.

Before founding DECG, Carneal worked closely with executive teams, operations leaders, and frontline staff to diagnose bottlenecks in order management, production flow, customer onboarding, data handling, and cross-department handoffs. This hands-on experience shaped his practical approach. He does not sell theory. He builds clarity, priorities, and momentum.

Carneal is also deeply involved in developing structured consulting methodologies and reusable client tools, including operational assessments, efficiency scorecards, KPI frameworks, and implementation playbooks designed to help organizations sustain improvements long after an engagement ends. His firm’s deliverables emphasize transparency, documentation, and decision-ready insights that leadership teams can trust.

He is based in Southern California and works with clients across the United States.

Focus Areas

  • Skilled Problem Solver
  • Expert in Cost Reduction & Process Improvement
  • Process Management
  • Workflow Modernization
  • Business Process Evaluation
  • Modern Workplace Transformation
  • Operational Bottleneck Assessment

Specialties

Process DevelopmentChange ManagementCollaborative StrategyData Analysis

Latest Posts

Bottlenecks and Approvals: The Slowest Two-Step

Most teams don’t have an execution problem. They have a waiting problem. Work piles up behind one team, one person, or one “special process.” Then approvals show up to finish the job: decisions die in inboxes, and “quick sign-off” becomes a two-week vacation.

The Four Boring Moves That Make Office Automation Actually Work

Automation works when it’s boring: standardize intake, validate inputs, route work to the right owner, and send weird cases to an exception queue. Here’s a simple way to spot and pilot a workflow that won’t turn your team into bot babysitters.

Ownership Leaks: When “Shared” Means “Nobody”

“Shared ownership” sounds collaborative. In practice, it often means work ricochets between teams until the deadline shows up and somebody takes an emergency bite out of it. Ownership leaks are expensive because they create invisible delays.

IBM’s 1990s Wake-Up Call: When Efficiency Wasn’t Optional

IBM didn’t survive the early 1990s by holding more meetings or printing a prettier strategy deck. It survived by confronting ugly numbers, cutting through internal drag, and re-engineering how work actually flowed. This article breaks down the stakes IBM faced, the efficiency moves that mattered, and the hard operational questions most companies avoid. If your business is stuck in “busy” mode, this is your wake-up call, minus the multi-billion-dollar loss.

Big Plans Don’t Fail. Friction Wins.

Most strategies don’t fail in a dramatic explosion. They fail the way a shopping cart fails: one wobbly wheel, a squeaky hinge, and suddenly you’re steering with your whole body. If you’re a department leader, you’ve seen it.

All Posts by David Carneal

Constraints Make You Faster: Standardize Without Killing Creativity

Standardization doesn’t kill creativity. It kills rework, confusion, and the endless “which version do you use?” conversations. LEGO’s turnaround shows how constraints can make systems faster and teams more inventive. Use the 3-layer model to standardize inputs, default workflows, and exceptions without turning your process into bureaucracy.

The Innovation Trap: When ‘Diversifying’ Means ‘Panic Buying’

When performance wobbles, ‘innovation’ can turn into panic buying with a bigger budget. LEGO’s near-collapse is a reminder that too many initiatives create operational whiplash and hidden work. Use a simple 1–3 scorecard and a stoplight portfolio to separate real strategy from shiny distractions.

Complexity Is a Tax: Find Your 13,000 Parts

Complexity doesn’t show up as a single problem. It shows up as thousands of tiny choices, templates, exceptions, and workarounds. LEGO learned the hard way that uncontrolled variation turns into a tax on your people, your systems, and your supply chain. This post gives you a fast ‘13,000 Parts Audit’ to find the mess and remove one version that’s slowing everything down.

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