A lean thought – Go for the simpler not the perfect solution

In a mail I got recently it said “Go for the simpler not for the perfect solution”. This is perfect lean manufacturing oriented thinking. Most of the organizations will focus on finding solutions which will be perfect for their organization. This is fine. But in the process most of the people forget the usability of these ideas in day to day basis. This is the problem. Most of the perfect solutions require lots of attention, and resources to execute the solution. The solution might cost than the problem in the long run for the organization.

I in my job have seen many perfect solutions on board, but most of them have not succeeded in practice. There might be many reasons for the failure; a main reason is the complexity of the solution itself. In my informal studies on the reasons for failures I found some.

1. People do not understand the problem correct – Most of the people involved in solving the problem are not affected by the problem and they hardly get the input from the people who are affected. Without understanding the problem correct there is no way one can define a solution for a problem.
   
2. People do not go deep into the problem to find the solution – People just look at the problems on surface and they try to find solutions. Finding the root cause to the problem is one of the important lean manufacturing concepts. Without identifying the root cause the problem can not be solved but will be hidden.
   
3. Solutions contain too many variables and options – Solutions are designed by the experts and they think the implementers and the day to day users are the same. So the solutions contain too many Ifs. Without saying this is how this should happen and if not stop, the solution will tell if this happen do this, else if do this, else if do this and it goes on. Solution will be perfect for a programmer not for a day to day user.
   
4. Solving problems to satisfy one party involved not the system – Some solutions are designed to satisfy some of the parties involved and with a negative effect on other parties and a total negative effect on the organization. This is a result of sub optimization. These solutions have very little chance when it comes to implementation.

No solution should cost more than the problem it self by means of money, human resource and complexity it creates. I always use 80 to 20 rule in finding the balance. If the simplest and most effective solution can solve the 80% of the problem with only 20% of effort I will go for that. Generally fixing the rest 20% of the problem will require 80% additional effort and hence not an effective solution most of the times.

Think closely about the problem. Simple things work the best. Lean manufacturing always trust simplicity in thinking, executing and sustaining of the result.