Recognizing and eliminating structural complexity

✍ Scribed by George Elliott

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 83 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0745-7790
• DOI: 10.1002/ert.10082

✦ Synopsis

I f an organization is deeply seated in a quagmire of structural complexity, the situation, at best, limits performance, and, at worst, can lead to a business's demise. Most often, when people speak of complexity, they do so only within the context of operations. How complex are daily shop floor manufacturing operations, or, in a service company, just how difficult is it to do business?

Unfortunately, all complexity is not so easily identified. Complexity, as described in the following paragraphs is the sum total of all low-value processes and activities and is often more evident and more dysfunctional in the planning, support, and management ranks than it is in the operations.

Benchmark organizations maintain a constant vigilance to ensure that such lowvalue activities do not become the centerpiece of organizational behavior. This becomes one of management's primary responsibilities-to keep the organization focused on its highest priority objectives. This is the essence of "lean manufacturing" and true Six Sigma-variation reduction and "critical-few management."