Applying Occams Razor to Lean

Occam’s razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar; William of Occam. The principle states that “Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily.” It’s sometimes written as: “when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the better.”

Lean projects are complex, and everything from a lack of funds, to a lack of staffing, to a lack of time and focus can be blamed for failures. Nevertheless, striving for the simplest possible solutions in a project is one of the drivers of success. Consider this example:

It is one of the largest computing projects on the planet, arguably employing more computers than any other single, fully managed system (we’re not counting distributed computing projects here), some 200 computer science PhDs, and 600 other computer scientists.And it is all hidden behind a deceptively simple, white, Web page that contains a single one-line text box and a button that says Google Search.

The quote above shows that although achieving simplicity is difficult ultimately simplicity leads to a greater chance of success. In fact, lean is all down to that basic adage – KISS (or Keep It Simple, Stupid). It is very easy to be carried away with all the jargon surrounding Lean and Agile, MRP and JIT, kaizen and kaikaku and on the surface, TPS appears simple. It can be explained with the kind of homilies that companies like to laminate on three-by-five cards: Maximize flow, eliminate waste, respect people, etc. But while TPS in concept isn’t complicated, its implementation and coordination require blood, sweat, and tears. In the end, simplicity: the rigorous application of Occam’s Razor in all of our lean activities leads to excellence in what we do!