Roadblocks to Progress in the Management Sciences and Operations Research

Management scientists and operations research people have contributed heavily to the rationalization of operations and decision making in the General Electric Company. One TIMS member in 20 is employed by the Company. We have about 50 management information systems consultants in our Internal Automation Operation, over a hundred more working on aspects of management science at the Corporate level, and well over a thousand in the Company's operating departments.

In addition, nearly 200 General Electric managers are currently attending a course in management and management science at our Management Institute in Crotonville, and in three months they will be replaced by another group. There are also some 2000 financial employees who are now in the middle of a 40-session study of mathematics, statistical inference, model building and econometrics. So General Electric is drawing heavily on the collective research of TIMS and ORSA members.