Proactive Approach 07: Simplification

R.P. Churchill, CBAP, PMP, CSPO, CSM, A-CSD

Proactive Approach 07: Simplification

The Basics

Making products simpler can make them easier to use and easier to produce.

Product lines can be extended with simpler options (which may or may not be desired).

Design for manufacturability is a major practice in this area.

I've watched certain products I use be continuously redesigned so they embody simpler shapes and include fewer parts. It can take a lot of experience and insight to see how to make something simpler.

Proactive Approach 07: Simplification

More Observations

This concept tends to apply more to products than processes, but simpler products can be easier to produce, and individual working components and operations within a process can be simplified.

One doesn't generally find the simplest, most optimal design on the first try. It takes iteration to get something to work and then successively improve it. In a market sense, it is sometimes less a case of "getting there first-est with the most-est" (as they say about wars) than about "getting there first-est with just-enough-est."

Proactive Approach 07: Simplification

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