Corporate models: on-line, real-time systems.

This article deals with a new advance in the technology of decision making—not a breakthrough, because the approach described is more evolutionary than revolutionary, but an important new step in the art of using computerized models as a management aid. After describing the principal elements of the approach they have developed and illustrating it with a simple model, the authors turn to two major applications in use at Potlatch Forests and Inland Steel. Then they describe several smaller-scale systems developed by a hardware manufacturer, a health services organization, an agricultural cooperative, and other companies. The impressive features of the new on-line, real-time decision-making system include its low cost, the speed with which it can be built, and the availability of the modeling and programming skills required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]