We live in an overly complex world with complex tools and programs to keep equipment and technology up and running. When we find ourselves up to our belt loops in perplexing reliability issues, we have an opportunity (make that ‘an obligation’) to learn from a strong history of solving complex problems.

“World-Class Simplicity,” a term coined in 1996 to describe what a top NASCAR race team was doing to achieve the highest-possible levels of performance and reliability, is based on the teachings of a 14th- century English logician, who also happened to be a Franciscan monk: William of Ockham (1285-1349).

Those teachings, known as “Occam’s razor,” stated, in part, that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible. This principle also is known as “the law of parsimony,” “the law of simplicity,” or just plain “keep it simple.” Interestingly, William of Ockham’s 14th-century thinking and writing, considered to have laid the groundwork for modern scientific inquiry, makes sense for complexities of equipment reliability. As a case in point, consider the efforts of U.S. Navy Vice Admiral and Naval Aviator Paul David Stroop (1904 – 1995).

Stroop held high-ranking positions in Naval aviation from the 1930s through World War II. Then, from 1959 to 1962, as Chief of the Bureau of Naval Weapons, he oversaw development of the Navy’s aerial weaponry. During that time, he also instituted “Project KISS” (for “Keep It Simple, Stupid”) to increase reliability and reduce costs of the military equipment his organizations produced.

Many decades later, the acronym “KISS” continues to be relevant. That’s because aspects of maintenance and manufacturing reliability are still unnecessarily complicated, confusing, fragmented, and costly. Countless attempts to improve performance are based on opinions, assumptions, and gimmicks rather than objectivity, evidence, and facts. Improvement programs requiring “a leap of faith” frequently prevail over fact-based, simple solutions. Too often, complex solutions are developed to address relatively simple problems (“accidental complexity”). Granted, sometimes “simple solutions” won’t adequately solve complex problems as well as more complex solutions (“essential complexity”). The “KISS” approach, though, should be the first course of action.

To be clear, now’s the time to seek “world-class simplicity.” In an era of accelerating global competition and skills shortages, businesses that embrace world-class simplicity of their advanced manufacturing systems and equipment reliability will rise to the top.

The ability to anticipate, innovate, think outside the box, be flexible, and respond quickly have made industries and economies strong. Going forward, industrial operations have to get back in step with well-trained workforces, experienced leadership, a focus on results, using the right tools, and doing things right the first time and every time. History shows that we know how to do it. We just have to make a conscious effort to do it now. And we CAN do it!

The steps toward world-class simplicity are, themselves, relatively simple: Assess the facts. Define the problem. Seek the simplest solution and try it. Measure the results. If the new solution works, learn from it. Then leverage it and the processes that got you there to solve other problems.

In other words, if you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras. Likewise, if your competitive advantage slips, look first at your maintenance, reliability, and manufacturing processes. That’s “world-class simplicity.” Go ahead and “KISS” it

bwilliamson@theramreview.com