Printing Gold with 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.
Volume 3 | Number 6 | June 2020
The Elegance of Simplicity
It was just last year when Apple Inc. (AAPL) announced that the company had exceeded a market value of $1 Trillion. How did they become the first company with a trillion-dollar valuation? It is my opinion that it was Steve Jobs’, and now Tim Cook’s, relentless focus on simplicity. Both understood that it would not be easy and that it would take unwavering tenacity to achieve their vision.
“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
- Steve Jobs
How does this concept translate to Operations and Supply Chain?
Let’s start with the fact that very few companies go from zero to $100 Million, or $1 Billion in valuation overnight. They start with a $50K or $100K purchase order, followed by a $200K or $500K PO, then the acquisition of a competitor, and before you know it, they’re at $100 million in sales.
The same is true of business process complexity. At the $50K to $500K in sales level, Operations and Supply Chain processes can be run with index cards & Excel spreadsheets. The processes that Johnny and Sally once used to maintain control are no longer adequate for a higher level of sales, more complex Bill of Materials, and the addition of international Suppliers & Customers.
Throughout my career, time and time again, I have heard from CEO’s and COO’s, who would claim that they needed to upgrade or implement a new ERP system. "This will fix the problem we’re having with customer service and/or inventory levels, and once it has been completed, everything will be good." If only it was that simple.
The real issue is that we allow entropy to creep into our organizations.
en · tro · py /'entr?pe/ noun.
Lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder.
The following are examples of Entropy Creep in your organization:
A few suppliers turn into thousands.
A few customers turn into hundreds or thousands.
The number of raw and sub-assembly part numbers increases exponentially.
The number of finished goods part numbers increases exponentially.
The need to support service parts for 10 to 20 years after end of product life cycle.
etc., etc...
Once entropy creep has occurred, it doesn't take long before the team gets caught up in a failure spiral of just trying to keep up with daily tasks, never getting to the root cause of the complexity that’s consuming their time and energy.
What if I were to tell you that for every business I have worked with, I completed the following analysis, and had the same outcome?