🗒️[Glossary] Complexity
Complexity and variant management
In the context of variant management, the term ‘complexity’ reflects the level of effort required to master the multitude and variety of customer requirements, the product with its variants and the processes required for the product lifecycle.
As complexity necessarily is associated with effort, one focus is always to reduce complexity as far as possible.
However, reducing complexity is not a goal in itself. Mastering a certain level of complexity (e.g. offering a particularly variant-rich product range) can be a unique selling point in competition (read also: Clash of goals → How to find the sweet spot)
Sources of complexity
Complexity can apply to many aspects, including:
Multitude of requirements - A multitude of requirements leads to an increase in the complexity of a product. The developer(s) must keep all of these requirements in mind when designing and implementing the architecture of the product.
Variety of variants - Requirements can be variant as a further dimension. This may be because different customers have different wishes with regard to a product feature, or because different regulations and standards have to be fulfilled in different markets.
Extensive product architecture - The more components, features or subsystems a product consists of, the more complex it tends to become. This is all the more true the greater and more diverse the interdependencies between the product components.
Supply chain - A high number of variants often goes hand in hand with a complex supply chain. Depending on the product architecture, it may be necessary to design the logistics and production facilities across the entire supply chain in such a way that a large number of product variants can be handled. A favourable product architecture in this sense enables the creation of variants ‘at the end’ so that the overall complexity of the supply chain can still be kept low.
Verification - A multi-variant product can quickly have millions or billions of possible variants. It goes without saying that not every variant can be tested and secured individually. A hedging strategy for products with many variants must therefore include how an almost infinite range of variants can be hedged with finite tests. This is all the more challenging the more complex the product architecture and its dependencies are.
These aspects can also be interrelated. For example, the diversity of requirements can lead to an extensive product architecture, which in turn can lead to complex supply chain processes. Mind you: can, does not have to.
"Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence.
The term is generally used to characterize something with many parts where those parts interact with each other in multiple ways, culminating in a higher order of emergence greater than the sum of its parts. The study of these complex linkages at various scales is the main goal of complex systems theory."
Complexity, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Complexity&oldid=1280211669 (as of May 10, 2025).
Related article
Variantmanagement is always a conflict of goals!
Different customers have individual needs. At the same time, companies aim to keep internal complexity as low as possible. Rarely both can be achieved to the maximum extent each. Let's tackle the challenge and see what approaches help to balance and find the sweet spot!
