Making Large-Scale Models Manageable: Modeling from an Operations Management Perspective

While building complex models is an important part of operations research practice, OR workers have focused too often on modeling's technical aspects instead of making the models manageable, that is, designing them around the ways people will operate them. The issues raised for complex models are different from those most widely discussed for decision support systems because the focus is on models that require a staff to maintain and operate them and on how the staff functions. Operations management provides the tools for thinking about the operations of large complex models; this paper examines some of these tools and shows how they relate to the design and operation of large complex models.