Efficiency of complex projects

In a complex process, the overall efficiency can be surprisingly low. Certain factors which control efficiency multiply against each other. If there are six of these “multifactors” and each has an efficiency of 70 percent, the overall efficiency is only 0.7⁶, or 12 percent. Even worse overall degradation can be caused by “omnifactors,” which control the efficiency of many multifactors. Here, the efficiency drops exponentially with the number of multifactors affected. The remedy is to identify multifactors and omnifactors and to improve them or reduce their influence. Suggestions for doing this are discussed.