Knowledge that Transforms

I shall concentrate my remarks upon a few of the techniques that the System Engineer has been using increasingly during the past decade—powerful techniques from science, mathematics, and economics that the System Engineer is finding have frequent and general applicability in his field. I shall also present my own views regarding good general strategies to use in approaching various types of system engineering tasks, views that seem to me often to conflict both with the majority view and with common practice among system engineers. My own system engineering experience is almost entirely with military systems, and there always with only a portion of some major system; it is rare, if ever, that one man has had the opportunity to system engineer a major military system from conception to operation, so almost all experience is fragmentary in this sense. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

Report of the meeting held on June 4–6, 1959, in Chicago. Besides the general overview of the meeting, following sections are presented: (A) Organization theory, (B) Computer systems, (C) Simulation, (D) Research and Development Management, (E) Measurements in Management, (F) Production and Inventory Management, (G) Management Games, (H) Long-Range Planning, (I) Managerial Economics, (J) Management Implication of Electronic Controls, (K) Contributed Papers.

No abstract available. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

Modern industrial processes are usually complex and present operators with many problems of control. These arise especially in human monitoring of control systems leading to changes being made by interpretation of instrument readings. Two major management problems arise here (a) to get process operators to recognize that these discrepancies will arise and are of a stochastic nature; and (b) to teach them how to interpret the data they observe quantitatively and how to reach correct decisions thereby. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

In speaking of the Role of Business Research as an Aid to Managers, I am going to make an assumption. This assumption is simply that for the foreseeable future, most industrial businesses will be constituted pretty much as they are now. They will be loosely coupled systems in which many people will continue to play a major role in sensing, deciding, regulating, adjusting, innovating. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

On December 4, 1958, the Detroit Chapter of The Institute of Management Sciences organized a panel discussion entitled “Operating Management Speaks” to present what operating management would like from the mathematical analysis of business operations. Two of these presentations are given here to illustrate the attitude of operating management about the Management Sciences and where they feel it can contribute to their problems. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

The purpose of this article is to suggest a reallocation of costs in a manufacturing industry in such a way as to make it possible: (1) to compare profitability within different competitors and (2) to evaluate the profitability of each product line and the profitability of all sections (or departments) of a given company. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

The need for control of production is well established in the science of management. The most effective methods of control are not. I believe the most effective method is control of production through inventory, and an explanation of that method is the purpose of this paper. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

This presentation makes no pretense of original contribution to either Monte Carlo or waiting-line analysis. It is merely an attempt to explain an important application of an interesting technique to managers somewhat lacking in mathematical sophistication. My objective is to enable such managers: (1) to recognize situations in which the technique may be useful, (2) to select appropriate staff or consulting personnel to make such studies, (3) to collaborate with such associates in establishing objectives and in formulating the general approach to be used, (4) to understand the results of such studies and to accept and implement these results intelligently, and (5) to be able to solve such problems as may be simple enough and intriguing enough to give sufficient pleasure to warrant the undertaking. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.

All scientific areas of knowledge share common characteristics which distinguish them from the non-scientific. In evolving into a science an area of knowledge will acquire those characteristics common to a science. This is true of Management Science. But it is equally true that subject matter differences among sciences yield characteristics that distinguish one science from the others. For a scientist dedicated to a single field of knowledge, it is these distinguishing elements that are of prime importance in guiding his work and interests. What follows is the author's attempt to identify some of the critical characteristics of Management Science (as he sees it) consequent upon a major area of its subject matter, Business Organizations, for the purpose of clarifying its role as an applied business science. Management Technology, ISSN 0542-4917, was published as a separate journal from 1960 to 1964. In 1965 it was merged into Management Science.