Comments on: Flintstoning http://rowansimpson.com/2007/12/11/flintstoning/ Made in New Zealand from local and imported ingredients Thu, 08 Jan 2009 01:14:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=MU hourly 1 By: Miki http://rowansimpson.com/2007/12/11/flintstoning/#comment-6813 Miki Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:32:31 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/12/11/flintstoning/#comment-6813 We always used to use the term Kit Kat - usually web forms filled in that ended up in someone's in tray that they might (or might not) get around to. Flintstoning is a much better term - better mental picture of what really happens! My experience of this is not a debate about whether to automate or not but more to have the discipline to review your processes regularly to make sure that you are operating as efficiently as possible. I've seen too many situations where the Day 1 process was never automated but was also never reviewed to see how it coped with scale. We always used to use the term Kit Kat - usually web forms filled in that ended up in someone’s in tray that they might (or might not) get around to.

Flintstoning is a much better term - better mental picture of what really happens!

My experience of this is not a debate about whether to automate or not but more to have the discipline to review your processes regularly to make sure that you are operating as efficiently as possible. I’ve seen too many situations where the Day 1 process was never automated but was also never reviewed to see how it coped with scale.

]]> By: Jim http://rowansimpson.com/2007/12/11/flintstoning/#comment-6809 Jim Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:15:07 +0000 http://rowansimpson.com/2007/12/11/flintstoning/#comment-6809 "Automation is critical to achieving scale" - a very dangerous and seriously flawed assumption, especially when dealing with physical goods and human interactions. It leads you into complex automation of complex processes. Try to automate everything, and the complexity is often some combination of unbuildable, unreliable, unresponsive, or inflexible. "Lean thinking" says only automate if there are very clear benefits of doing so, if the process is very robust, and if you are absolutely certain that flexibility is not lost. Simple focused automation using a flexible building block approach seems to work better. Best example - Toyota, which is the least automated yet most efficient car manufacturer, with the highest ex-factory reliability. The way application families are emerging now suggests the same is true even in information systems. “Automation is critical to achieving scale” - a very dangerous and seriously flawed assumption, especially when dealing with physical goods and human interactions. It leads you into complex automation of complex processes. Try to automate everything, and the complexity is often some combination of unbuildable, unreliable, unresponsive, or inflexible.

“Lean thinking” says only automate if there are very clear benefits of doing so, if the process is very robust, and if you are absolutely certain that flexibility is not lost. Simple focused automation using a flexible building block approach seems to work better. Best example - Toyota, which is the least automated yet most efficient car manufacturer, with the highest ex-factory reliability.

The way application families are emerging now suggests the same is true even in information systems.

]]>