Editorial: Models as Aids to Thought

The opening chapters of most good texts on operations research or management science discuss the approximate nature of models and the need for interaction between the modeler and the decision maker. Also, somewhere in the text is some discussion of sensitivity analysis. Nonetheless, the overall impression the texts give is that the models of our profession are directly applicable. While our models do contain important thinking, I believe that it is dangerous to treat them merely as embodiments of thought rather than as aids to further thought.