Saturday Seconds

Many project managers will state that 20 percent of the work consumes 80 percent of time and resources. Other examples of the principle include:

80 percent of a company’s revenues are generated by 20 percent of its customers

80 percent of complaints come from 20 percent of customers

80 percent of quality issues impact 20 percent of a company’s products

20 percent of investors provide 80 percent of funding

20 percent of employees use 80 percent of all sick days

20 percent of a blog’s posts generate 80 percent of its traffic

In the US, 20% of patients consume 80% of health care resources, which is a reason why some advocate taking the sickest people out of the main healthcare insurance pool. According to a widely reported study in New Zealand (the Dunedin Study), 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals. In computer science, Microsoft noted that fixing the top 20% of the most reported bugs, 80% of the related errors and crashes in a given system would be eliminated.

Pareto is also well known for his principles of efficiency/optimality, but that theory is not the topic today. On the 1-in-1,000,000 chance that someone in the auto industry is reading, what applications of the 20/80 rule apply there? Could it be that 20% of vehicles have 80% of the defects?

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What do you think about the Jaguar XJS?

From Mecum is a picture of a Jaguar XJS convertible. Three XJS cars were offered for sale at the most recent auction in Dallas. Only one sold ($6,600 all in, which means it hammered for $6,000), but all three cars were convertibles.

The XJS had the “misfortune” to follow the legendary E-Type as the Jaguar mainstay. The XJS is not a high-performance car to threaten road course records, but I think it has a great look and it’s not a slug. It was a wonderful GT car and very successful for Jaguar as about 115,000 were produced during its 21-year run. I think the XJS is one of the least respected successful cars in history.