Perspectives on MS Applications—All Around the Model

Recently, I was asked for my opinion on whether, since the management sciences have applied to industrial problems since the early 1950s, more than twenty years, I perceived any substantial tangible effect of the management sciences in our current economy. This question seems particularly pertinent in view of the recession we have just been through, its depth, its duration and the speed with which we climb out of it. Obviously it is difficult to answer any such question since one must ask the companion question, “Compared to what?” In other words, we can't really know what might have been had the management sciences not been around at all. Nevertheless some observations may be possible, and, in this column, I shall select one small area for examination to determine whether management science has truly had its effect, and determine what we can do to make ourselves more effective.