The power of simplicity

Many times we get lost in the complexity of tools that for a long time have given us results and of which we become experts. Our desire to achieve increasingly complex things makes us stop seeing that many problems are, in reality, very simple to solve

In my last work phase, I have given myself the task of going back to the basics and to the simple, to the pragmatic. I was told by a boss I had in Europe many years ago ... "is that you want to do everything very complex, you must be more pragmatic!" And he was right, well, in part. An example of this that I mention is the use of Pareto Charts. It is a simple tool to understand, but not easy to apply. It requires practice. This tool, used properly, is very powerful because it reduces a whole universe of possibilities to such a small space that, although we are not experts of the process where the problem is found, we can find easily and quickly the cause and, therefore, the solution. Well used this tool and, moreover, combined with a "Drill Down" we will reach the point in time and space where we will practically be able to see the cause of the problems with our own eyes. Even the most experienced process owners are surprised as someone with little or no experience in the problem (but in the solution methodology) can rule out dozens of potential causes that the experts themselves suggest. This with the mere fact of ruling out all potential causes that do not explain the behavior of the Pareto Chart previously selected. For example, if I have a Pareto Chart where I classify the problem by days of the week, and this chart shows that the problem occurs 80% of the time on Tuesdays. Only with this chart I can rule out all those potential causes that the experts suggest and have to do with machinery, tooling, materials, etc., unless, there is an explanation for these to be a cause that happens only on Tuesdays.

Finally, it is worth first dealing with these tools before launching ourselves into the complex (it took me many years to assimilate this) because at the end it does not cost us neither time nor money and only a minimum effort. We must only take into account the limitations of Pareto charts, for example, the interactions between factors (not seen). Even so, they serve as a starting point in search of the solution we are looking for.