Source: Griffin R.W.

, Management, parts of Chapter 2

The Quantitative Management Perspective
The third major school of management thought began to emerge during World War II. During
the war, government officials and scientists in England and the United States worked to help
the military deploy its resources more efficiently and effectively. These groups took some of
the mathematical approaches to management developed decades earlier by Taylor and Gantt
and applied them to logistical problems during the war. They learned that problems regarding
troop, equipment, and submarine deployment, for example, could all be solved through
mathematical analysis. After the war, companies such as DuPont and General Electric began
to use the same techniques for deploying employees, choosing plant locations, and planning
warehouses. Basically, then, this perspective is concerned with applying quantitative
techniques to management. More specifically, the quantitative management perspective
focuses on decision making, economic effectiveness, mathematical models, and the use of
computers. There are two branches of the quantitative approach: management science and
operations management.
Management Science
Unfortunately, the term management science appears to be related to scientific management,
the approach developed by Taylor and others early in the twentieth century. But the two have
little in common and should not be confused. Management science focuses specifically on the
development of mathematical models. A mathematical model is a simplified representation of
a system, process, or relationship.
At its most basic level, management science focuses on models, equations, and similar
representations of reality. For example, managers at Detroit Edison use mathematical models
to determine how best to route repair crews during blackouts. Citizens Bank of New England
uses models to figure out how many tellers need to be on duty at each location at various times
throughout the day. In recent years, paralleling the advent of the personal computer,
management science techniques have become increasingly sophisticated. For example,
automobile manufacturers Daimler AG and General Motors use realistic computer simulations
to study collision damage to cars. These simulations give them precise information and avoid
the costs of crashing so many test cars.
Operations Management
Operations management is somewhat less mathematical and statistically sophisticated than
management science and can be applied more directly to managerial situations. Indeed, we can
think of operations management as a form of applied management science. Operations
management techniques are generally concerned with helping the organization produce its
products or services more efficiently and can be applied to a wide range of problems. For
example, Rubbermaid and Home Depot each use operations management techniques to manage
their inventories. (Inventory management is concerned with specific inventory problems, such
as balancing carrying costs and ordering costs, and determining the optimal order quantity.)
Linear programming (which involves computing simultaneous solutions to a set of linear
equations) helps United Airlines plan its flight schedules, Consolidated Freightways develop
its shipping routes, and General Instrument Corporation plan what instruments to produce at
various times. Other operations management techniques include queuing theory, break-even
analysis, and simulation. All of these techniques and procedures apply directly to operations,
but they are also helpful in such areas as finance, marketing, and human resource management.

Source: www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/principles-of-management

Quantitative School of Management

During World War II, mathematicians, physicists, and other scientists joined together to solve
military problems. The quantitative school of management is a result of the research conducted
during World War II. The quantitative approach to management involves the use of
quantitative techniques, such as statistics, information models, and computer simulations, to
improve decision making. This school consists of several branches, described in the following
sections.
The management science school emerged to treat the problems associated with global warfare.
Today, this view encourages managers to use mathematics, statistics, and other quantitative
techniques to make management decisions.
 Managers can use computer models to figure out the best way to do something —
saving both money and time. Managers use several science applications.
 Mathematical forecasting helps make projections that are useful in the planning
process.
 Inventory modeling helps control inventories by mathematically establishing how and
when to order a product.
 Queuing theory helps allocate service personnel or workstations to minimize customer
waiting and service cost.
Operations management is a narrow branch of the quantitative approach to management. It
focuses on managing the process of transforming materials, labor, and capital into useful goods
and/or services. The product outputs can be either goods or services; effective operations
management is a concern for both manufacturing and service organizations. The resource
inputs, or factors of production, include the wide variety of raw materials, technologies, capital
information, and people needed to create finished products. The transformation process, in turn,
is the actual set of operations or activities through which various resources are utilized to
produce finished goods or services of value to customers or clients.
Operations management today pays close attention to the demands of quality, customer service,
and competition. The process begins with attention to the needs of customers: What do they
want? Where do they want it? When do they want it? Based on the answers to these questions,
managers line up resources and take any action necessary to meet customer expectations.
Management information systems
Management information systems (MIS) is the most recent subfield of the quantitative
school. A management information system organizes past, present, and projected data from
both internal and external sources and processes it into usable information, which it then makes
available to managers at all organizational levels. The information systems are also able to
organize data into usable and accessible formats. As a result, managers can identify alternatives
quickly, evaluate alternatives by using a spreadsheet program, pose a series of “what‐if”
questions, and finally, select the best alternatives based on the answers to these questions.
Systems management theory
The systems management theory has had a significant effect on management science. A
system is an interrelated set of elements functioning as a whole. An organization as a system
is composed of four elements:
 Inputs — material or human resources
 Transformation processes — technological and managerial processes
 Outputs — products or services
 Feedback — reactions from the environment
In relationship to an organization, inputs include resources such as raw materials, money,
technologies, and people. These inputs go through a transformation process where they're
planned, organized, motivated, and controlled to ultimately meet the organization's goals.
The outputs are the products or services designed to enhance the quality of life or productivity
for customers/clients. Feedback includes comments from customers or clients using the
products. This overall systems framework applies to any department or program in the overall
organization.
Systems theory may seem quite basic. Yet decades of management training and practices in
the workplace have not followed this theory. Only recently, with tremendous changes facing
organizations and how they operate, have educators and managers come to face this new way
of looking at things. This interpretation has brought about a significant change in the way
management studies and approaches organizations.
The systems theory encourages managers to look at the organization from a broader
perspective. Managers are beginning to recognize the various parts of the organization, and, in
particular, the interrelations of the parts.