suboptimization
Part over whole
Suboptimization is improving one part of a system in ways that harm the whole.
A department that hoards budget to hit its own targets while starving other teams is suboptimizing.
The term appears in management, economics, and systems theory to describe local gains that create global losses: Cutting customer service costs led to suboptimization—returns and complaints ate the savings.
Unable to see far
- siloAgricultural storage tower
- departmentalOf a unit within organization
- parochialNarrow in perspective
- short-sightedPoor at seeing consequences
bounded · isolated · fragmented · compartmentalized · divisional · segmented · piecemeal · partial
Unwanted discarded material
- redundancyNeedless duplication
- duplicationMaking an identical copy
- misallocationImproper distribution of resources
- bottleneckConstriction limiting throughput
counterproductive · self-defeating · overproduction · underutilization · slack · bloat · rework · churn
Giving up something precious
- compromiseAgreement through mutual sacrifice
- cost-benefitComparing expenditure to return
- zero-sumBalanced gains and losses
- displacementRemoval from usual location
cannibalization · spillover · externality · system-wide · holistic · interdependency
myopic
Unable to see far
- siloAgricultural storage tower
- departmentalOf a unit within organization
- parochialNarrow in perspective
short-sighted · bounded · isolated · fragmented · compartmentalized · divisional · segmented · piecemeal · partial · subsystem
waste
Unwanted discarded material
- redundancyNeedless duplication
- duplicationMaking an identical copy
- misallocationImproper distribution of resources
bottleneck · counterproductive · self-defeating · overproduction · underutilization · slack · bloat · rework · churn
sacrifice
Giving up something precious
- compromiseAgreement through mutual sacrifice
- cost-benefitComparing expenditure to return
- zero-sumBalanced gains and losses
displacement · cannibalization · spillover · externality · system-wide · holistic · interdependency
suboptimizationoptimization
Maximizing efficiency or performance
optimum · maximization · best practice · excellence · perfection
optimal, optimum, optimize, optimization, optimized, suboptimal, optimizer, suboptimize, suboptimized