Today I read this article posted on 26 Apr 2019 on The Atlantic that stimulated some thinking about objects I have designed and how well they work in terms of flaws and performance:
When Making Things Better Only Makes Them Worse
None of my designs come even remotely close to the Boeing 737 Max or the alarm system used in Notre Dame (as mentioned in recent news). Yet what I have discovered is that my best designs–the ones that cause the least problems–are the most simplified designs. The least amount of components, least amount of moving parts, least amount of circuits, and least amount of programming code.
Anytime a single feature is added to “improve” a given project, this seems to exponentially increase the complexity of the design. The number of concerns that must be tracked quickly go beyond a single person’s (or a large team’s) ability to predict and comprehend downstream consequences. This is why rigorous testing–examining both repeatability and reproducibility–is so very important as part of the design process. Even after a sequence of extensive testing flaws come out through consumer use. So long as humans are fallible, the designs they create will also be fallible. The entire quality movement and industry is predicted on the fact of human imperfection. Six Sigma still has 3.4 errors per million opportunities.
The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain. (Montgomery Scott, aka Scotty, Star Trek III The Search for Spock)
When I consider the multiple millions of opportunities that exist for any modern aircraft to catastrophically fail, I am extremely impressed by how few injurious or fatal accidents take place. Cars, trucks, heavy equipment–the same way. What about bridges, high rises, escalators, or simpler devices such as lawn mowers and microwaves? As a modern culture we are extremely blessed by the extremely complex devices which we use which work so flawlessly, safely, and dependably….
