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Cybernetics Expert Addresses TRTA Meeting B OTH the use and abuse
Page 65
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of operational research techniques as applied to transport and distribution were examined by Mr. Stafford Beer, managing director, Science in General Management Ltd., at a Central London area meeting of the TRTA on Monday.
Operational research—or "OR"—meant the application of science to management problems, he said. Science constructed a model of the situation management was in, and progress was made if the manager agreed that the model—whether mathematical or physical—was relevant.
It was essential to discover the system by which management maintained control as a whole. In such a research exercise it was not sensible to carve the business up into little bits with the object of expanding the profitable and discarding the rest. One of our troubles today, Mr. Beer insisted, was that "we had broken Humpty-Dumpty into tidy pieces and now we don't know how to put it together again". So many sections of an organization were interdependent.
When applying OR to transport and distribution a number of models were useful. First there was linear programming. The complexity of transport and distribution resulted in there being virtually an infinite number of ways of effecting delivery. But only one was the less costly or, alternatively, the most profitable. So computers become necessary.
Then there was the geographical model indicating the network of possible routes. This time the objective was not the economic
optimum but to determine what was a practical possibility.
Regarding restrictions or "containments" on optimum operation, arising from such everyday factors as customer-demanded delivery times, half-day closing and legal limitations, Mr. Beer said that while they might seem restrictive or irksome to the operator, to the scientist these same containments cut down the number of possibilities in his striving for the best solution.
Avoidance of a fixed approach to such problems was essential. One should not eschew out of hand what appeared to be fantastic solutions. Here Mr. Beer instanced a specific case where the original exercise was to ascertain the savings to be derived from setting up additional depots to an existing national distribution system. But as, in theory, more depots were added, so costs went up. So the original exercise was put in reverse and ultimately a single-depot system was shown to be the most economic.
Answering a question as to the application of a computer to day-to-day scheduling of vehicles, Mr. Beer explained that it was necessary to "uncouple" the problem into two halves. The computer should be used to establish the basic rules of the exercise rather than to try and optimize the whole problem every successive day.