Keep it Simple

In this article, Shirky talks about how many societies have failed as a result of complexity. He sites several examples of companies and scenarios that were unable to compete because of the complex processes and infrastructures they had in place.

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/#comments

This is a conversation that's been going on for years now. We are over-saturated with media, communication, information. We are the most educated we have ever been as buyers.

But we're getting sick of it. How do we manage all the information coming at us? How do we filter in order to find the messages that we want to hear?

You can see the shift into simpler times. People are starting to think more about their minds and bodies. They're taking care of themselves more. People's houses are getting smaller. We're starting to save more as a result of the recession. We have staycations and would rather spend time at home with our families then travel the world.

Communication is getting shorter and more simple - Twitter! What's the bottom line? What's the point? Is this our impatience or the fact that we receive 3,000 messages a day?

How does this apply to the highly technical, industrial world of automated systems? Material handling systems are extremely complex but replace fairly simple functions. How do we simplify our solutions? How do I simplify our communication? How do I create a relevant message of simplicity to the marketplace?

Start Local, Think Global. Better serve those in our community and make their material handling processes more simple, then outsource that process.