If you haven’t been paying attention to Boca Chica, Texas, you might want to change that. Elon Musk and SpaceX have been busily re-writing the rulebook when it comes to space exploration, and along the way, they’re taking Agile project management to a whole new level.

In just a few months, they’ve built a construction and launch facility in Boca Chica and are quickly developing the world’s first rapidly reusable rockets with an eye towards putting humans back on the moon in 2024 and on Mars shortly thereafter.

Just recently, Elon Musk, the billionaire behind SpaceX, granted an extensive video tour and interview with Tim Dodd of Everyday Astronaut.com. (Check it out here.) During that interview, Musk talked about his five rules for engineering. Besides being a fascinating look into the mind of the man who is changing how we go to space, his rules can be applied to almost any endeavor.

The Five Rules

Make the requirements less dumb. Instead of blindly accepting a requirement as gospel, question it. How is it applied? How does it help? Can it be improved to be more helpful and/or less restrictive?

2.      Delete as many parts/processes as possible. The bias is to include procedures and constraints “just in case” which de-emphasizes legitimate constraints. Defense in depth and redundancy are two different concepts. A good first step is to require that every constraint comes with a “owner’s” name attached. A department may or not be able to answer the “why” behind the constraint, but a person can.

3.      Simplify, THEN optimize the design. Optimization of redundant requirements or processes is a waste of time. Make sure the process or part is truly needed before optimizing its design.

4.      Accelerate the cycle time. As you complete each iteration of a process, it should become smoother, faster, and more efficient. If it doesn’t, then you’ve missed something in steps 1-3. Stop digging your grave and find the problem.

5.      Automate the process. The first time through, you’re exploring, designing and defining the process. The second time through, you’re finalizing the details. By the third time through, the process should be defined and fluid, whether that is via automation or a manual process using procedures.

Applying the Rules

Make the requirements less dumb. While many of our process requirements are driven by regulatory agencies, how we choose to meet them is an area to examine. If workers are required to have regular training, then setting up a planned schedule to conduct that training minimizes the impact on production. Monitoring their training completion, along with any expiration or refresher dates allows us to minimize the impact that training has on production. It may also be beneficial to follow step 2 and be certain scheduled training is actually necessary.

2.      Delete as many parts/processes as possible. There’s a couple of different ways to approach this one. First, as touched on above, ensuring that all assigned training is actually required can produce significant time savings. A worker who changes jobs may not require the same training items as he did previously. Second, we can work to ensure that all training events are properly attached to the jobs that require them. The same training will likely apply to multiple jobs; it’s much easier to assign any requirements to a job than it would be to assign them to EACH individual person. That way, when an individual is assigned a job (or multiple jobs) he “inherits” those requirements, but they are still managed in one place…under the job.

3.      Simplify THEN optimize the design. Check your procedures. Are they all needed? Can a higher level procedure, say for a district or region, be used instead of a local procedure? Minimize the procedural levels to reduce complexity. Once you’ve gotten your requirements down to the minimum, look for ways to meet them more efficiently.

4.      Accelerate the time cycle. Look for ways to track training and other requirements more efficiently. Tracking requirements can be time consuming and difficult; find ways to make it easier. A robust system should be easy to use and require a minimal amount of time; if you aren’t saving time with each iteration; there’s a problem.

5.      Automate. Once you have completed your training program design, automate it, either by an appropriate software system, or simply by proceduralizing it. Reducing decision making automatically reduces error.

Takeaway

If you watched the video, you’ll notice that Musk is significantly more blunt than I am, but he does get his points across. The rules share a common thread; take nothing for granted. Question everything and always be willing to change your method to something better. It is that relentless quest for improvement that allows Musk and SpaceX to forge far ahead of their competition in the new space race. That same quest can be harnessed for your business. WebSmart can play a vital role in that quest. Give us a call and find out more!