San Fernando Valley
Stat e College
AN I:NVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECI OF THE COMPUTER ON
TH E ROLE
OF
THE MIDDLE fvlANAGER
A thesis submi� ted in part ial
requirements for the degree of
satisfaction of the
Master
Business
by
Donald T heodore
Sundquist
Committee in charge:
A pril,
1967
of S cience in
APPROVED by
major
thesis committee
idviser
To Mimi, Alyce, Matt, and Joel
for.their waiting.
lll
TABLE OF CONTENT S
P age
:
APPROVALS
.
.
ii
.
L IST OF TABLES
vii
L I S T OF FIGURES
viii
ABSTRACT
1
CHAPTER
I.
INTRODUCTION
2
•
Statement o£ the P roblem
Importance of the Problem
Hypothesis
Investigative .Tech niques
Awareness of Need
D efinition of Terms
II.
WHAT CURRENT PER IODICALS AND
BOOKS SAY THE
llv1PACT OF EDP HAS BE EN ON Mi\NAGE!I1ENT
17
Introduction
Managerial Objectives
Communicatio n
Managerial
Decision-Making
The Trend Toward T otal Sy stems
Changes in Control
Organization
Impact
Changes in the Planning Function
EDP and the Staffing Function
EDP Im pact in Large Cor porations
Summary
I I I.
CASE ANALYSIS OF HOW THE MANAGER
AFFECTED
BY
IS
COi\!PUTER INSTALLATIONS
Introduction
The LOCS Case
Summa.ry
LOCS Case Analy sis
Planning
Sta ffin g
iv
•
34
TABLE
I II.
OF CONTENTS
{ Cont inued )
Page
{ Cont inued )
Organizing
Directing
Cont rolling
Summary
Job Location and Shop Order Updating
with Punch Cards
Summary
R aybestos Division Case Analysis
Planning
St affing
Organizing
Directing
Control ling
Summary
IV.
MAIL QUESTIONNAIRE SURVEY
•
.
48
.
In troduction
Con tents
Technique of t he Survey
Result s of the
SUrvey
Analysis of Results
Managerial Impact
Planning
St affing
Organizing
Directing
Controlling
Further Comment
to Answers to t he Write-in
Quest ions
Question Twent y-Nine
Questions
Twenty-Seven and Twenty-E ight
Regarding Reports
v.
RESULTS
OF- PERSONAL
Choice of
A
Typical
INT ERV IEWS
.
.
�
Int erviewees
Int erview Session
Resul ts of the
Interviews
General Question in Regard to
Planning
Staffing
Organizing
Directing
Controlling
Int crvi ewees
v
EDP Impact
63
.
TABLE OF CONTENT S
V I.
SUMMARY AND
(Continued)
Page
CONCLUSIONS
74
Summary
First
Conclusio n
Second Conclusion
F inal Conclus ion
V I I.
AN EYE T O T HE FUTUR E
78
T he Comput er Advant age
E ducatio n
The Future
Man-Machine Relationships
O n Line Syste:ns
Organi zat ional
Interrelationships
Information Utility
P rogrammin g
T he Computers
The Manager
APPENDIX
APPEND IX
"A" -
"B"
TWO CAS E ANALYS IS
INSTALLAT IONS
•
•
OF COMPUT ER
•
THE QU EST IONNAIR E
APPENDIX "C" - THE LE TTER
APPENDIX
"D"
-
.
.
.
.
88
103
106
KEYSORT CARD
109
APP El\'DIX "E"
- RE SULTS OF THE SURVE Y .
110
BIBL IOGRAPHY
.
115
vi
J--
LIST OF TABLE S
TABLE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pa ge
Tabular Results Showing Man agerial
by Depart ment Usage
Questions Which
.
.
.
•
Reasons for Reversion
.
.
•
•
.
•
•
from an
Questions Pert aining to
Quest ions Pert aining
•
•
.
EDP
.
vii
55
t he Staffing
56
to Organization and
w
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
52
54
.
to a
Answers Pert aining to the Manager's
Control Function
.
.
Funct ion
Direction
Impact
•
Indicate in Wha t Way t he
P lanning Function was Affected
Manu·al System
.
•
•
•
•
58
60
LIST
OF
FIGURES
P age
FIGURE
1.
Production Control
Schedule
viii
.
.
.
.
.
.
•
•
101
ABSTRACT
AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECT OF THE COMPUTER
ON THE ROLE OF THE MIDDLE MANAGER
by
Donald Theodor e Sundquis t
Master of Sci en ce in Business
April , 1967
Th is thesis is an inves tigation into how . th e int r o duc tion o f comput er s and el ec tronic data processing {EDP )
hav e impacted the manag er ial func tions of planning , staffing ,
organi zing , direc t ing , and con tr oll ing .
Four modes of inv es tigation were used .
F i rs t , two
company cas e s tudies wer e anal yz ed , one wi th an ext ensive
compu t er ins talla ti on and one with a minimum ins tal la tion .
Second , a ques tionnair e was mai led t o members of the American
Prod\lc tion and Inventory Soci ety .
Third, per sonal interviews
wer e conducted wi th memb er s of middl e manag emen t in vari ous
fields of bus iness .
Four th , an inves t i gation was made into
wha t cur r ent li tera tur e says r egarding the impact of the
compu ter on manag ement .
Th e cl osing chapt er is a summary of
what
var ious
au thor s ar e pr edi cting for the futur e of bus ines s and management as a r esul t of modern compu ter technol ogy.
1
i--
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Probl em--The purpose of ·this thes is is
to inves tigate what impa ct elec tronic da ta process ing (EDP ) has
had on th e j ob of the middl e ma nag er .
from a vari ety of condi ti ons .
Thi s impact mi ght r esul t
A firm migh t be cons i der ing a new
appl i cat ion or in troduction of a comput eriz ed system .
The
proc ess of opera t i on analys is , organizati onal changes con ternpla t ed or planned r ev i s i on of operating procedures , personnel
r equi r ements , e t c . may affect the j ob of the middle manager .
The
·tangible ins tallation of a computer and the hardware involved , as ·
wel l as al l the changes necess ary to make i t operat ional , can
fur ther modify the j ob o� the middl e manager .
The cont inued us e
of th e cornpu t er i z ed sy s t em can alter th e i nformation fl ow and i ts
speed throughou t an or ganization and , s t ill fur ther , have an
impa ct on the middle manager ' s j ob .
To i l lustrate the initial cons ideration s tage , one has
'only to r ev i e w the rang e of qu esti ons to be ans wer ed by the
managaaent of a firm evaluating th e prospects of a computer in
i ts organization .
I.
Planning
A . Scope and Content
1. Do plans agree wi th establis hed poli cies? Have
actual or potent ial areas of conf l i c t between
2
,..
•
3
plans and poli cies been brought to the a t t ention
of top management for res olution?
2.
Do plans indi cate wha t is to be done , whc�re , when ,
. why' how ' and by whom?
3 . Do pl ans take into cons ideration all of the fac­
tor s involv ed in the total s i tua tion?
4.
Do plans permi t ana lys is into subor dina t1� plans
which ma y b e eas i l y r e -as s emb led in to the whol e ,
thus making for eas e of coordina ti on?
Are plans logical and fai rly s ta t ed in tl�rms of
5
specific dimensi ons?
6 . Are plans s tabl e enough to make poss ible their
acc'?mpl ishmen t?
7. Ar e plans flexible enough to al low for d(?sirable
change and modification?
8 . Are all r equir ements of the plan subj ect to prac­
t ical control?
Th e Plann in2 P roces�
•
B.
..
1.
II.
Ar e plans dynamic no t s tati c? Are they continu ­
ously r eviewed and r e-evaluated?
2. Ar e plans devis ed only when j us tifi ed and befor e
the pr oblem arises?
Organizin�
A . Organi zation Struc tu r e
·
1 .
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11 .
12 .
13 .
14 .
15.
Have th e func tions w i t·h in the general policy
framework been car efu l l y determined and ass igned?
Have adequa t e r esources been al l oca ted t o thes e
functions?
Is the management function adequa tel y di s tribu t ed?
Ar e al l r equired functions alloca ted?
Ar e any unnecessary func tions alloca t ed?
Are the functions al loca t ed so as to pr ovide har monious gr oups?
Ar e s imi lar activi t i es grouped cl os ely together?
Ar e depend ent functi ons grouped cl os ely toge th er?
Ar e control func tions independent of operat ing
ac tivi ti es?
Are activi t ies which are performed in sequence
placed cl os ely t ogether?
Does any one empl oyee r epor t to more than one
boss?
Ar e th e span of cont rol and the chain of command
as short as pos s i ble?
Is ther e an appr opria te balance between c entra l i ­
zation and decentrali zati on?
Does the organizational s tructur e and assignmen t
of respons ibili ty provide fo r a continuing suppl y
of key pers onnel ?
Is the organi zation appropr iate in terms of the
factors of s iz e, member shi p, type of leaders hi p ,
type of eP.'ployee, ease of communication, etc . ?
4
16 .
17.
Does the organization r eflect uni t y of comma nd?
Does the organizati on provi de for adequate par ­
ticipa tion at al l levels?
18 . Is the organizat ional s t ructure des igned on the
bas is of the needs of the pr ogram ra ther than on
the qual ification of pas t or pres en t empl oyees or
execu tiv es?
19 . Does the form of organiza t ion pr ovide f or eas e of
r ecrui tment , s el ection , and t raining of r eplace­
men t s ?
20 . Have clear s tructural r ela tionships been es tab ­
li shed. so that each part is rela t ed to the others
and to the whole and so the uni ts can cooper ate?
21 . Ar e ther e any ac tiv i t i es which can or should be
performed el s ewher e?
22 . Ar e ther e any addi tional activi t i es necessary?
23 . Ar e ther e any ac tivi ties which ar e dupl icated
el sewher e and can be el imina t ed?
24 . Ar e al l activities necessar y for accompl ishment
of the functions?
B. pe1 e9.ation of Authority and Assignmen t of R es .e_onsi ­
bili ty
1 . Is there any dupl ication or over lapping of ex ecu ­
tive r esponsibili ty?
Are
the assignment s of r esponsibi l i ty cl ear an d
2.
not compl icating?
3 . Ar e ther e any ov er lapping r esponsibili ties?
4 . Is ther e any backtracking of wor k , giving evidence
of a lack of r equ ir ed author i t y or that author i t y
i s t o o hi gh i n t h e organization?
5.
Does each per son hav e a cl ear unders tanding of his
r esponsibi li ti es?
6 . Do es each pers on or organizati onal uni t have
adequate authorit y for fu lfi l lmen t of i ts r espon­
sibi l i t i es ?
7 . Is any person requir ed t o b e a t the s ame time an
assis tan t to and a cri ti c of another?
8 . Is au thor i ty properly s ecured, located , and
u ti l i z ed?
9 . Is the work so organiz ed and execut ed that i t
achieves the policy goals?
1 0 . Would i t b e advisable t o re -dis tribu t e the dut i es
among mor e or fewer per s ons or in a diff er ent
pat t ern?
C . Com..rnunicat ion
1 . Do conunun ications flow r eadi l y through all chan ­
nel s of the or ganizati on?
2 . Does the work of empl oyees suffer from lack of
knowl edg e of wha t is to b e done , or of too many
boss es?
5
Could lines of communication be short ened or im ­
proved by changing the ass ignnen ts of respons i ­
bili ty?
Are the policies general ly kn<>wn , unders tood , and
accepted as being worthwhile both within the
organ i zat ional uni t and externa l l y?
Are plans known to and util ized b y all concern ed?
Are they general l y acc ept ed?
Are offi cial deci s ions cl ear , precis e , dis tinct ,
and made suffici en t l y wel l known?
Do al l org ani zati onal uni ts use the informati on
they recei ye?
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
I I I . St affing
A.
B.
Empl oye Ut il izat ion
1 . Have the duties of each pos it ion been wri t t en down
;
and the resp onsib ili ties cl earl y defined?
2 . Are known qual ifications es tablished for each
pos i tion?
3 . Is each empl oye being u t il iz ed at the opt imum
l ev el of his abi l i t i es?
4 . Are the tasks and the tal ents of empl oyees reason­
abl y wel l correl at ed?
5 . Are j ob responsib i l i t i es and pos i t ion class ifica­
t i ons reviewed as changes occur to the pers ons '
condi tioning of j obs and j obs ' condi tioning of
persons?
6 . Are s taff offic es properl y u t i l i zed?
7 . I s there a s ound opportunity for indiv i dual
part icipa tion?
8.
Do the mos t important duti es consume the mos t
time?
9.
Do the higher ski ll ed pers on s do the higher
skil l ed tasks?
1 0 . Is the workload roughly balanc ed?
Trainin9
1.
IV .
Is there an adequa t e trai ning program at al l
lev els?
2.
Are the superv isory levels adequate , trained ,
compe t en t?
Direct ing
A . In ternal Rel ations
1.
2.
3.
Ar e plans b eing carri ed out desp i t e any obs tacles
and in a mann er satis factory for reporting
purpos es ?
Are major orders always giv en t o subordinat es
through the responsibl e supervisor?
Are probl ems · careful ly defin ed and faced when
they ari s e?
,..-
6
Ar e s tandard or der s and regulations es tabli shed
wher e des irab l e but not un til desi rable? Are
th ere enough? - - too many?
5 . Ar e routing pr oc edur es fol low�;:�d?
- ---6.-- --Does· ·the sys tern work aut omatical ly?
7 . Ar e ther e an y r epeated s t eps or cycles whi ch
sugges t the poss ibili ty of dupl ication or over ­
lapping?
4.
B.
External Relations
1 .
Are r elations wi th other groups properly con ­
duc ted?
Physi cal Faci l i ties
1.
Ar e the layout , the phys i cal faci li ties and the
work condi ti ons adequa te?
2.
Does the layou t keep the l ines of communication
t o a minimum?
3 . Does th e layou t cons erve space?
Does i t prov i de conv en ient acc ess to the us ers
4.
but keep outs iders away from th e oper ations being
condu ct ed?
5 . Is the la you t desi gned in accor dance wi th th � flow
of work?
6 . Is i t fl exib l e? Does i t al low for expansi on?
7. Do es i t pr ovide for special wi ring , plannin g ,
venti la tion , e t c . as necessary?
8.
Do es i t pr ov ide for pr oximi ty for s ervice un i t s to·
the un i ts b eing s erv ed?
9 . Does i t provi de for pr oximi ty of related un i t s?
10 . Does it pr ovi de desi r abl e work conditi ons?
11.
Do es it pr ovide privacy for con fident i al work?
Is ther e fr eedom from nois e and dis traction?
12.
Is th er e a faci l i t y for in terviewing and for
1 3.
commun icat ion wi thou t di s tracting others?
Con trol lin5.!_
C.
_
V.
A.
Standar ds of Performance
1.
Ar e ther e performanc e schedul es , time limitations ,
oper ating measur em ents ? Are these not onl y
planned bu t also utili z ed?
2.
Is da ta ou tput us ed· t o measur e performanc e as a
basis for deci s ion , t o reformulate pol i cy , to
execu te regul ar affai rs of business?
B.
R eports and Controls
1 . Ar e ther e meas ur ing devi ces and procedures that
insur e individual and organizationa l uni t com ­
pa tibi li ty?
2.
Do the control or checking duti es cost more than
they ar e wor th?
3.
Ar e the es tabl ished checks and controls necessary?
4.
Ar e r epor t s p er t i nen t
to
5.
Ar e r epor t s
compr ehen s iv e and comp l e t e?
6.
Are r epor t s
c l ear
to
the
recipi en t?·
Is
Ar e r ep o r t s compar a t iv e?
known
9.
Is
th e data
r ela t ed t o
s tandar ds ?
each r eport
r equi r ed?
10 .
I s any unnecessary
11.
Wha t
12 .
How is
C.
the s t a t ed s ubj e c t ?
r epor t s accura t e and cu r r en t ?
Are
7.
8.
brief' bu t
informa t i on in clud ed?
addi t i onc:,l informa tion s h oul d be inc luded?
the
infor ma t i on us ed?
F orms Management
-
1.
Is
t h e desi gn·o£
is
as
th e form
such that compl e t i ng i t
easy as p os s i ble?
2.
Ar e the i t ems
3.
Is
4.
Ar e t he c ommon
cl ear
i n t hei r
i n t en t ?
t h e a r r ang emen t of i t ems r el a ted t o the order
of informa t i o n at
forms
on
in
the s our c e?
info rma t i on
the indi vidua l
forms
5.
I s each i t em n e c ess ary?
6.
�fuy
is
i t ems
th e same f o rma t and in
each
copy
in
in
a s er i es
of,
t h e same l oc a t i on
the s er i es ?
n e eded?
7. ·Ar e o t her copies needed?
8.
How many a r e f i l e d by each organi z a t i onal un i t ?
N e ed t h ey b e f i l ed?
Cou l d a c i r cu la t ed c opy b e us ed to
9.
el i mi n a t e t h e
n eed for o n e o r mor e c op i es ?
10 .
Does
11 .
Al l
of
any
Are they n e c es s a ry?
Do the
cl ear es t
"p l anning ,
as
l i ng " . 2
This
copi es go
to th e r i gh t per s on ?1
th e foregoin g ques t i c;ns . t ouch upon
mana g er i a l fun c t ions
men t
organ i z a t i ona l uni t g e t mo r e than one
copy?
th e f iv e bas ic
or i gi n a lly d ef i n e d i n p r i n c i p l e s o f Manage-
s t affing,
the s i s wi l l
organ i z ing ,
dir ec t i ng ,
i nv e s t i g a t e wi thin l imi t s
and con t r o l some o f the
'
;
impac t of EDP on each of
1
James W.
( U . S . A. :
.
3rd
ed.
Sy s t ems
2
H.
G r e enwood,
EDP : The. F ea s ibi l�� S t udy....!.
and P r o c edur es A s s oc i a t i on,
Koontz and
(Ne;�
these func t i on s .
c.
O'Donn e l l ,
York: McGraw-H i l l
1962.)
P r incip l e s _ o f Managemen t,
Book Co . ,
19 64 . ) ,
P.
39-41 .
8
Impor tance of the P roblem-- In at t empti ng to examine the
impact on the middle manag er , it is des irabl�� and impor tant tha t
the conclus i ons and exper i ence of other s be explor ed .
The use of
comput ers in business applicati ons is expand:�ng rapidly; ther e£or e , management mus t pr epare i t s elf to oper at e in this env iron men t .
Technological br eakthroughs i n programming , higher
pl:int ing speeds , fas t er and mor e ver s at i l e comput er s and acces sory . equipmen t are occur r ing dai l y .
This could mean tha t once a
s ystem is ch os en and ins tal led , that ob solescens e is a danger in
that a competi tor coul d gain a compe ti tive adv antage wi th a mor e
up-to -date appr oach .
It wil l be shown that dir ect cos t control can be impr ov ed
by the use of
EDP .
This wi ll improv e the efficienc y of dir ec: t
cos ts , and the comput er may als o hav e a radi cal eff ect on ov er head cos ts .
EDP can s ell its elf if i t pr oduces specific r esults
such as thes e :
. Dynamic inventory and rna ter ial con t r ol
da ta , permi t ting a 20 to 40 per cent r eduction in inven t or y ,
a 35 per cent r eduction in clerical per sonnel , immediate
v er ification of l ead times and cu s t omer del ivery dat es , and
a 20 per cent incr ease in sales .1
•
Manag ement t o wor ker ratios are alr eady changi ng dras t i cally in
·some busi n es s es , and , as
a
resul t , some management alr eady has
had to r eadjus t i ts modus operandi in a maj or way .
"Compu t er s
wer e beginning t o thin the ranks of offi ce-bas ed mana. gement ,
Res_��!_�,
1J�
D. Bat t en , pevel opinq a Touch Minded Cl imate for
( N ew York: American 1\lanagement Association , 1965.) p.
81.
9
11
particul arly factory based labor. 1
In
the
the next decade the population increase may c:.ccelerate
computer involvement
at present.
in the management
field even more than
the population increase due to the �igh birth
First,
. rate during World War II will have the effect of causin£;
ratio o£
personnel
in the 40 .. to
a low
60 year old age bracket2
(con­
sidered to be the age o£ peak efficiency for managers).3
This
could also mean that the average age of managers might decrease
in order to cope with this dearth o£ man agerial personnel.
addi tion,
In
more high school graduates than ever before are start-
ing college.4
This will increase the formal
technical skill level o£ younger men.
management and
I£ formal technical and
managerial training are requirements of management jobs in
·companies using EDP,
fied to fill
then the youQger m an will be better quali-
these positions.
The executive of tomorrow
•
•
be younger when he assumes command
.
•
will in all probability
•
. He will have an
entirely different educational background
more about production,
presidents
1
ment",
in 1963
Walter A. Klein schrod,
.
U. S.,
Sept. 196 4.,
s.
3Rodney Luther.
in a class at
4u.
�-?:§4 '
S.,
p
He will know.
•
(This point was first made by Dr. Luther
San Fernando Valley
State College in Cali­
was taking from him at the time,
B ureau o£ the Census,
1 07 .
Ssatten,
9P·
p. 22.
Natility Statistics 1960.
reconfirmed in an int e:rview in December 1966.)
.
.
"Cross Fire on Middle Manage-
Bureau of the Census,
fornia which the author
u
•
today who were raised in the £actory.S
Administrative �anagement,
2
.
lead time and the like than most
cit.,
p.
97.
and
Statistical Abstract of
the
10
In summary,
managers are going to be competing for jo
. bs
in companies where computers are used extensivel y as a ·�ool of
management.
quantities
In addition to being required to manage greater
of imm ediate subordinates,
managers will hav(� to use
efficiently the tremendous data acquisition systems at his disposal.
However,
along with these opportunities
ers) come certain responsibilities:
(use of comput­
For management education in the area of total busine�;s under­
standing
(or how to use facts once they are available).
For putting t he utmost in creative thinking into approaches
to business management systems.
For utilizing the resultant knowledge of a business to provide
leadership.
out
This involves allowing middle management through­
a company to use its skills for original
thinking
decis ion making instead of checking minor details.l
In the decision making process,
and
the manager will be using
only that data that is pertinent and ·meaningful to the decision
at hand.
•
action must be taken as dictated by the decision
rules that have been built into the system.
puter,
having simultaneous access to all
all parts,
ent. manner
analyzes these
•
•
•
data
•
The com­
data pertinent to
�n an exhaustive and consist­
and indicates both a suggested action to be
taken a,nd the facts upon which the decision was based.
(This is extracted from a description of a particular system
installation. )2
1
c1ark Garrison,
Jr.,
The Computer:
and Responsibilities." Mana2ement Bulletin
American Management A sso ciation,
2
Robert W.
Blake,
1963.)
1963. )
1.
"A Requirec1
1 ent Action
Exception", M anagement Bulletin 36,
ment Association,
p.
"New Opportunities
36 ,
p.
19.
(U._
S.
A.,
(U
•
.
s.
A.,
System by
American Manage­
11
Operation research staffs are
trolled systems decision assisting
building into the
formula way beyond
EDP con-
the compre-
It then becomes mandatory that the
hension of most managers.
manager use the computer in this
scientific decision making
process.
But,
ma nagement will also find,
.... are expected to know,
management.
undErstand,
Increasingly,
increasingly,
and handle new
that they
concepts of
they will find that they are ex­
pected to use systematic methods of analysis and decision
·making,
tion,
supplemented by nEw tools of communication,
and presentation,
.
.
but the
computa-
"managemen t sciences"
.such as operations research or decision-making logic -
and
-
the new electronic tools and systems are going to make a
1
difference, even to the manager in the small business.
Because of this inability to decipher all the specific detail of
·the decision making process,
the manager must depend more than
.ever on the end results as judgmental criteria of his own effectiveness.
Subsequent chapters in this thesis will explore the
detail impact of EDP on the management functions.
cases
which were analyzed,
on the impact on
and the surveys,
production and
From this analysis of the
an attempt will
forecast the manager's job in the future.
correct,
and
emphasis is placed
inventory control
present,
In the two
management.
be made to
If this f orecast is
managers train and educate themselves accordingly
and then properly apply this kno wledge and training,
they
should
be more successful than their counterparts in the management
field who did not follow such a path.
1
Peter F.
Drucker,
"The
D un's RP.view & �Jiod�rll In6ustr
_
x,
Nex t
Decade in Managemen t",
December
1959,
p.
52.
-12
Hypothesis--To
reiterate,
it is the purpose of this
thesis to investigate some of the impact on
j ob
<:;he middle manager's
by the innovation of EDP in the business world.
It
must be
emphasized that we are not here concerned with the things a computer can do,
even though some examples will be cited in order to
place the reader in a proper frame of reference;
viz.,
we are
interested in how the manager
has been
educational
change of managerial functions as a
requirements,
his
result of computer innovation,
To obtain data,
mailed,
his
etc.
over a thousand questionnaires were
ten persons were interviewed,
in detail.
perso:nally affected,
It is the intention
and two cases were analyzed
to obtqin
support
or denial of
the following stated hypothesis:
IN THE OPINION OF THE MIDDLE M ANAGER,
IN SPECIF IC ACTIVIT IES
EDP HAS
AFFECTED HIS RO LE
IN TH E LAST TEN YEARS .
Inves �igat_:!-_�� Tech_r:!_ !_gue�-.;.Many investigators,
ing to support a hypothesis,
says,
in attempt-
will violate a fundamental rule that
"One should never let a single set of data suggest a
hypothesis and also prove it.
arbitrarily stated,
11 1
but this does
In this case the hypothesis was
not detract
from
an
increased
support or denial of the hypothesis if multiple analyses are
used.
Four types of
1
c.
T. Quirmback.
man in August,
Litton,
G CS,
/
techniques.
inv estigative techniques were used to
1966.
I had a personal interview with this
He is a member of
\voodland
test
Hil l s
,
the technical staff of
and is a specialist in statistical
-
13
the hypothesis posed.
Fi rst ,
a mailed question naire was used.
personal interviews were conducted with members of
S2cond,
m3.nagement.
Third,
specific cases of EDP installations in com-
panies were analyzed .
Fourth,
an investi gation into what current
periodi cals and books say the impact of EDP has been on man agement.
If a majority of the people who answered the questionnaire,
and who were interviewed,
and an
analysis of the cases
indicate that the managerial functions have been affected,
the
hypothesis has support.
It must be understood that it
is
possible for a specific,
select grouping of managers to give
positive support to hypothesis.and another grouping to deny_
support.
For
example,
managers with ten or more people working
for them could supp ort th e hypothesis and managers with
nine people
could
zero to
deny support.
The cases and questionnaire mailing were analyzed prior
to starting the personal interviews.
This was done
so that the
personal interviews could be used. to study in depth any conflict
that could have arisen between the first two methods of investigation.
If the case study was logical,
'survey was accurate,
the personal
and if the questionnaire
then there should have beeri no conflict,
interviews
and
could then be used to gain more detail
into what impact EDP has had on the manager's . job.
A wareness of Need-- In
1
J.
Daniel Couger.
a recent speech,
Dr.
�1.
1
D. Couger
"Implementation of a Management Infor­
ma.tion System," Proceedin2s of the 17th Annual \vestern Sys terns
Conference, (Los�g eles, Ca lifoni.-ia, 196o.) Th1s statement was
made in re s p on s e to a question from the fl oor at the end of the
speech .
14
stated tha t the Univ er s i ty of Colorado is concentrating in i t s
Mas t er ' s degr ee p:;cograms in the bus i ness �:chool on the training
of graduates so that they can effi ci ently manage in a compu ter ized envi ronmen t .
Dr . Couger had compl eted a s tudy of thi r ty-
five firms that wer e in the process of ins tal ling computerized
manag ement informa tion s ys t ems.
In addit i on to th is , th e manage-
men t or i ented magaz ines ar e ful l of artic les on the subj ect of
compu ter impact on var ious ty pes of bus iness sys t ems .
We can
also look at th e bus iness forecas ts for the data pr ocessing
indus try as a whol e .
As ear ly as 1 957 , a bri ght futur e .for the
data processing indus try was forecas t £or the year 1965 .
The numb er -of large-s cal e comput ers ($1 mil lion or mor e )
pr es en t ly planned or in us e i n the Uni t ed States bus iness ,
indus try , and gov ernment is es timat ed at abou t five hundr ed .
Medium - and sm�l l -scal e machine s ($50 , 000 or mor e ) are
pr esen t ly planned or in us e at an es timated l ev e l of thr ee
thousand comple te sys tems . Th e .dol lar value of compu ter
manufactur ing r eplacemen t and s ervice thus r epr es ent ed
appr oaches $2 bi l li on annua l ly . Th e val ue o£ the activ i ty
made pos s ibl e by their us e , al though imposs ib l e t o estimat e ,
far exceeds this figur e . Estima t es whi ch appear reas onab l e
place the to tal numb er of comput ers ac tual ly i n us e b y 1965
at about fi ft een thous and . 1
By the end of 1 965 the actual figur es wer e s l ightl y ahead
of thi s es t ima t e as evi denced by the fol low ing quote :
The data pr oces sing indus try wil l hav e i t s big ges t year
in 1 965 , wi th annual shipments r eaching $1 . 6 bi l l i on for the
fir s t t ime in his tory . Ins tal la tions of EDP sy s tems wil l
exceed 20,000 by the end of next year , up fr om 16,000 a t the
end of this year . To tal cumulative value of ins talled
sys t ems wil l exceed $6 . 8 bi l lion by the end of 1 965 . 2
----�------
·--------------·-·· -----
1
John A. Postley. , CoEJPut�rs and People . (New York ,
McGraw Hil l Book Co . , Inc., 1 960. ) , p. 1 9 .
2_- -- - - , �utO_E}��.9E.--��l::_<?_:f t s �5?-!...�37 . { New Yo rk , Commer ce
Cl earing Hou s e Inc . , 1965 . ) , p. 1.
15
Definiti on of Terms--·Th e fol l owing t erms a r e defined for
clarifi cat ion of the cont en t of thi s pap er:
A supervi sory pos i t i on bel ow that level r epor t­
MIDDLE MANAGER:
ing to the chi ef execu tive and ab ov e the firs t l i ne super v i s or .
(For br evi ty , th e wor d "Mana9er " al on e i s us ed in thi s paper . )
ELECTRONIC DATA PROCESSING:
a digi tal computer .
Th e au toma t i c proces s in g of data by
In wri tings i n the fi eld and in this thes i s
t h e t erms comput er and EDP are often us ed s ynonymou s l y a nd i n t er ..
changeab l y .
MI DDLE MANAGER ' S ROLE:
The fiv e fol l owing funct ions ar e con­
s i der ed to be t he role of th e middl e manager .
P LANNIN G :
"P lanning involv es s el e c t ion of en t erpr i s e obj ec t ives
as wel l as goal s of depa r tmen ts and pr og�ams and the determina ­
1
t i on of the means of reaching them . "
STAFFING :
"Staffing is t he execu tiv e func t ion which encompas s es
the r ecrui tment , s election , t raining , pr omot ion , and r e t i r ement
of subordina t e manager s . " 2
ORG ANIZIN G:
"
•
•
.
organ i z ation ( i s ) the grouping of activi ties
necess ary to accompl ish goal s and plans , th e as s i gnment o£ thes e
activi t i es t o appropr ia te depar tmen t s , and th e provi s i on for
author i ty del egation and coor di n a t i on . "3
DIRECTING :
1
2
"To di rect subordin a t es , a manag er mus t mo tivat e ,
Koon tz and O'Donnell , OE· cit . , p . 69 .
Ibid..:.. , p . 396.
3 Ib id!..' p. 205.
16
com municate,
and
l
them. u
1 ead
"Delegation oJ:
ge neral form of direction than the issuance of orders."
CONTROLLING:
"Control
against the standard
imp lies measurement o1:
------....·�--·-- -----·-------·----·--�...
b
:��..!..
'
_::___2.9.!_'
2
Ib . '
d �,
3Ib.
._
_..2::.
.
2
accomplishment
and the correction of deviations to
.attainment of objectives a ccordi ng to p lan."
1I
is a more
authority
p.
471.
p.
481.
p.
535.
assure
3
---..-·-·-·---·-..----·-------
CHAPTER II
WHAT ClRRENT PER IOD ICALS AND BOOKS SAY THE
IMPACT OF EDP
HAS
B EEN ON MANAGEMENT
Introduct i on- -The purpos e of this chapter will be to
indicat e the cur r ent thinking of representat ive authors in the
field o:f .bu siness managemen t regardi ng the impact of comput ers
on the management function .
For the mos t par t , none of them have
attacked the problem specifi cal ly from the viewpoin t of the fiv e
bas ic funct ions of planning , s taffing , dir ecting , organizing , and
contrql l i ng .
Ins tead , the inf orma tion that is avai lab l e i s in
regard to par ticul ar examples of computer app l i ca t i on or specula ­
tion as t o the uses t o whi ch compu ters may b e put .
The appr oach used her e wil l be
to
quote exten s iv ely from
exis t ing works and deriv e from what 'is said what th e impact on
managers has been .
The ar ti cles and books which were chos en were
typical of wri tin g in the fi el d of
ment .
EDP
and its impact on manag e ­
The selection i s int ended t o cov er all five of the bas ic
funct ions of the manager.
Manager ial Objec tiv es--Some author ities in the fi eld
draw attention to how the computer affects the formul a t i on of
obj ectives and plans thr ough changing the flow of inf ormation on
whi ch such plans ar e based .
manager is to es tablish goa ls
Par t of t he planning func tion of the
and
).7
objec tives for the portion of
18
the organizat ion ov er which he i s r esponsible .
cal l s at tention
to
John C . Post l ey
the way in whi ch th e ins tall ation of an EDP
approach to management affects the manager ' s thinking .
The obj ectives for uti l i z ing large -scal e compu ters in
a part icul ar business firm mus t be reformulated in terms of
the fu tur e. Presen t obj ectives , formulated by accepting the
constraints of pas t or present capabi l it ies in data pr oces s ­
1
ing , are not l ikely to�be suitable
•
•
•
The underlying i dea her e i s tha t the sys t em obje c t iv es
are devel oped for the purpos e of improving manag ement . To
the extent that they approach the ideal management sys t em ,
such obj ect iv es may involv e new paths of data flow and new
proces s ing pr ocedur es . 2
In other words , manager s mus t for t h e purpos e of performing thei r
planning func t i on , -disr egard s ome of thei r pr es ent s ources of
planning data and look to new and different channel s .
The degr ee
to whi ch they are successful wi ll to a large degr ee determine the
rate at which their presently propos ed EDP sy s t em becomes
obs olete in the competi t ive bus iness worl d .
Communicati on--.Manag ers spend mos t of their communicat ion
effor t in wr i ting or speaking to human beings .
us e of words and s en tences .
This r equi res the
But with the compu ter proces s ing in -
formation between peopl e .and wi th the new t echnol ogi cal language
which has devel oped , different t echniques of communi ca ti on may
b ecome impor tant .
1
John
A.
P os t l ey emphas izes the fai ling of human b eings
Postl ey , �c�_!_._,
p.
10 .
19
to grasp th e t echnique of communicat ing between th e compu ter
program peopl e and the managE:r ial per s onnel .
..
__
Work is under way towar d a univer s al programming sys tem.
By means of such a sys tem, a pr ogram can be wri t t en to s olve
a giv en problem on any compu ter of adequate capaci ty . A few
limi ted cases of this kind have b een treated successfu l l y
very r ecently , b u t the lack of a general solut ion t o this
prob l em is pr obably du e mor e t o a lack of a preci s e defini­
tion of the problems to b e solved than to any defi ci ency in
the da ta processin g t echnique . The dis tinc tion b etween per­
forming the stated task and performing the des ired task ,
easily made by humans , represents the las t maj or barrier t o
all -out business data pr ocessing b y a di gi tal comput er sys tem. l
One can s urmi se from the fol lowing that the communicat ion that
takes place i s a s tatement of the des ir e of the manager to hav e
mor e compl ete informat i on a t hand for making a proper decis ion
on the problem .
But, unfor tunat ely , in a gr eat many applicat ions the
outpu t wh ich oc cur s i s concerned primarily wi th reproducing
for human perusal the content s of the files of the machine
sy s t em. Al though it occasional ly serves a usefu l purpos e,
this kind of output is es sent ially a thr owback to the sy s t ems
empl oyed before modern data pr oc :s s ing equ ipmen t and t ech ­
niques wer e available . 2
Under these condi t i ons the con t r ol function of the manager is un alt er ed��' except tha t deci s i ons may t end to b e more accur ate and timely .
A pos sib l e explanation of why a manager fai ls to
des i gn a proper opt imum sys t em and a defini ti on of the pr oblem i s
a s fol l ow s :
1 Ib i d '
. p . 25 .
2rb· -
_2-..s!_-:_, p.
_
37.
20
The t endency is for bus iness manag emen t peopl e , lacki ng
direct exper ience in data pr ocessing , to place too ma.ny of
the subpr obl ems into th e fir st cl ass . (pn�vious ly defin ed as
' the obj ectives of th e bus iness or ganizat�on clearly domi­
nating the data process ing cons iderations � ) Thus , management
is likely to place excessive emphasis on the achi ev ement of
those management r epor ts or thos e inqui ry--r esponse goals
which appear today to be requi rements of the system.1
"
•
the r eal prob l em ( i s } whether to s tr ive for immediate
rel i ef from curr ent diffi cul t ies in data processing or to a t t empt
to achi eve lar ger benefits ov er a l ong er run. " 2
Manager ial �ecis ion -Making- -Manag ers mus t mak e a con tinu ous ser ies of deci s ions in response to correcting changes tha t
may b e required as ev ents disrupt the chain o f ev ent s l eading t o
an obj ective .
Pos tley goes o n to poin t out that many of these
deci sions wil l become unnecessary .
A computer sy s t em can usual ly b e us ed mo re advantageous ly
than jus t to produce larger and more frequent mana gement r e­
por ts . In fact , ins ofar as managemen t reports s erv e to pro­
v i de div er s e information to peopl e for the deci s i on making
whi ch involv es a s t rai ghtforward appl i cat ion of es tabl ished
rules to this information , the comput er sys tem should b e
employed a s a means for making the deci sions . Under such
operati on , the information involved in the repor ts i s used
by the computer for this purpos e , and the expl i c i t product ion
of the r epor ts as such is of ten elimina ted . 3
Thi s points ou t that during the plann ing phase of consi dering an
EDP
sys t em ins tal la tion , a gr eat effect can b e made on the ev en -
tual con trol functi on of a manager .
1 Thid . , . 46.
p
2
Ib id . , p. 90.
3 Ibi d_:_ , p .
13 .
In ess ence , the manager
21
mi ght have the oppor tunity to giv e up some of his her etofore
decis ion makin9 power s and not just us e the
EDP
sys t em as a mor e
efficient data gathering t ool ; i . e. , a l t er his control functi on.
The Trend Towar d Total Sys tems --A few of the ar tic les and
books r eviewed indi cated a trend toward such an expans ive use of
EDP
that the term "Total System" has b een appl i ed to this kind of
ins tallation .
It i s in thi s ex t ens iv e usage that all operati ons
of a maj or concern can be l inked together with a compu ter .
An
ar t i c l e from Bus iness We ek ma.gazine in 1963 described such a
sys tem wher e a group of manager s in a cent ral l ocation in Nor thern Cal ifornia would be fed informati on by a computer and hav e
the capab i l i t y of con tr o l l ing a s ta t ewide oper ation .
Managers
woul d be abl e to as k the compu ter qu es tions ab ou t the oper ation
and hav e answer s i nstan t ly avai labl e .
The sys tem woul d even con -
trol the ground rules of the ir deci sions .
The sys t em descr ib ed
her e was the mos t ambi tious and comprehensiv e us e of a computer
found in the l i t era tur e r esearch .
Lockheed took a giant s tr i de
when i t unv ei l ed th e
l a t est l ink in i t s gr owing managemen t informati on network.
The new l ink , whi ch will bring to 383 th e number of r emotecontrol input s tati ons feedin g
a central comput er
brain , ( in )
Sunnyval e , C al ifornia . This brings Lock ­
heed wel l on i t s way to wir ing all i ts deci s i on makers into
a to tal sy s t em
one ne twork tha t deliver s the lates t
decis ion -making informa tion to the right man at the r ight
t ime.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A plant ma nager, faced
shor tage in one depar tment,
of bu ttons .
. and wi thin
gor g e a compl ete rundown on
wi th a sudden cr{tical labor
wi l l only have to push a coupl e
s econds , the machin e wi l l dis all the workers i n the plant .
Later , when Lockh eed ' s total sys tem b ecomes a r eali ty ,
top manager s sit down in a control room .
. compu ters program.\'ned with company pol i cy wil l take up t o th e-min ut e
.
•
-
--
..
22
informat ion , organi ze i t into char t form , run i t thr ough a
sl ide-making machine , and flash i t to th e wai ting manager s
The compu t er can offer and pr etes t s oluti ons befor e manpower
and ma ter ials ar e commi t t ed . !
•
Changes in Control- -Foxworth ' s commen ts on control · were ·
typi cal of the cur r ent li teratur e r evi ewed .
He does discuss the
impac t on th e manag ement con trol function wi t:h a degr ee of detai l
t.ha t makes his comments mos t per tinen t to this thes i s .
Control is here defined to mean thos e actions taken to
assur e that performance conforms to plans . Th e specific
phase of thi s process whi ch has b een mos t affect ed by th e
us e of computers is tha t of measur ing and r epor ting on per formance ,
the primary int er es t her e is in chang es in
con trol in the other { than EDP Depar tment ) activi t i es of the
bus i ness , and for this purpos e ttie definit ion shoul d s erv e . 2
.
•
Th e changes that have occurred in th e cont rol process . may :
be summariz ed under t hr ee headings :
1 . The natur e of the con trol that i s exerci s ed .
2 . The speed wi th whi ch con t r ol information is
r epor t ed .
3 . The accuracy of information in th e con trol
r epor ts .
Under the first heading two kinds of things have occur red .
Firs t , wher e "automatic" d ecis ions are made by the computer ,
a differ ent kind of control is needed . Ther e i s l i t t l e need
for con t i nuous superv is ion to see that performanc e conforms
to plans ,
Comput ers have been proved to hav e a v ery high
degree of r eliabi li ty of performan ce so tha t once the program
i s pr operly wri t t en ther e need b e only s uch ch ecks as are
•
.
1
Manag ement Mil lenium for D eci s ion Makers , Bus iness Week ,
1 9 63 , p . 54 .
2Jam es Barb er Foxwor th , The Impact of El ectronic Compu t ­
ers on Man ag_§!len t �E?C esses : Ca s e Studi es on Thr ee Leading
Companies , {Ann Arbor , Michigan , Univer s i ty Microfilms , 1 9 5 9 )
{This book is a PhD thesis done at Columbia Univ er s i ty and is the
one work tha t was found in th e fiel d which att acks the same prob ­
lem as this thes is . "This s tudy is dir ected at the management
impl icat ions of the u s e of el ectronic comput ers , in terms of the
impact that such us e ha s had on the adminis trativ e pr ocess es of
organizo.tion , planning , and con trol . " )
·
Augus t
10,
__
..
. . 23
necessary to d•2tect the occas ional mechani.cal troubles which
do develop . l
The s econd change in the natu r e of the control e�xercised
was thE! few _i nstanc es in whi ch "management by excepti on "
s eemed to b e us ed more of ten than previ ous ly . 2
In connection wi th the speed wi th whi ch control informa­
ti on is r epor ted , i t should b e no ted that this factor is
mention ed in connection with pra ctically every appl ication
3
des cr ib ed .
·
Under th e third heading , accuracy of r epor t , ther e were
cons iderab l e impr ov ements no ted
This impr ov ement s eemed
to take place in two forms . Fir s t , since comput ers can per ­
form a long s eries of r el ated opera tions , l ess manual i nt er ­
v ent ion i s neces sary , thus el iminating a major source of
error . 4
•
.
•
Th e other form in which this chang e has taken place is in
the elimination of "flash " repor ts in some ins tances .
Wh er e the data can be proc es sed by compu ter with less manual
handl ing the fir s t processing can be done qui ckly and
accurately enough to s erv e both purpos es . 5
�rg ani zation Impact - - Solomon indi ca t es that the manager
mus t think in t erms of funct ional effic i ency in the organization
of tasks and r eorganize j obs to take advantage of the effi ci ency
whi ch a comput er off ers .
When th e design of a comput er sys t em emphas izes i t s
role as a management tool , i t makes u s e of the total sys t em
idea in two ways . Firs t , wi thin the limi ts of cos t
1 Ib id . '
p.
149 .
P·
1 50 .
p.
1 51 .
4 rh
. G' . ,
�1
p.
1 51 .
5 Ib i d..:_•
p.
1 52 .
2 Ib id . ,
3 Ibi d . ,
•
24
jus t ifi cation , th e compu ter sys t em combines natural ly related
funct ions tha t ar e performed ' s epa rat ely in manual proc es�ing ,
thus approaching a total sy s t em hor izontally . Second, the
design of a compu ter sys t em r equires n�defini t ion of the
goals t:o b e met by th e func tion and , usual ly , a reas s i gnmen t
of tasks for more effici ent oper a tion . l
Cas e s tudi es whi ch wer e done by Foxwor th indicat e s ome
of th e varia t i ons of organization whi ch can occur as a r esul t of
the impact of a comput er i ns tal la tion .
The fo llowing paragraph
ind ica t es that the r espons ibi li ty for doing a par ti cul ar j ob has
been trans fer r ed to th e EDP d epar tmen t , but tha t the r espons i b i l i t y for defining the . func tion and determining the rul es of
operation r ema in wi th th e depar tmen t who gave up the functi on .
·
One of the . fi r s t or gani zational chang es noted was th e
creation of new depar tments to hand le s ome or all of th e
respons ib i l i t ies involv ed in computer oper ation or pl anning .
To the ex tent that chang es hav e occurr ed in other depar t ­
ments , i t i s , g eneral ly speaking , becaus e of the fact tha �
th e new depar tmen t for compu t er .work has taken ov er s ome of
the c l eri cal functions ,
ther e has been s ome shi fting
of deci s i on -making fu nctions i nto thes e new da ta processing
departments ; in ev ery ins tance the rules by which the de­
cisi ons are made are s til l pres cribed by th e operat ing
depar tments concerned . 2
•
•
This indica t es the organizational func tion of the manager has
b een aff ect ed in tha t he mus·t now dis tribute the arrang ement of
"work" to be mos t efficiently handled by ei th er hi s own peopl e on
a manual basis or by the EDP depar tment s if it i s mor e effi ci ent ly or comprehens iv el y done th er e .
1I
I f the manager does hav e the
·
rv1ng
I . Solomon and Laurence 0 . Wei ngar t , Manag em ent
Us es of th e Comput er , Harper and R ow , P ubl ishers , New York , 1 966 ,
p . 66 .
2James Barb er Foxworth , 2E . ci t . ; p . 141 .
25
cont rol of. the decis ion making func tion in the EDP depar tmen t as
indi cat ed ) then i t seems tha t the individual depa rtment managers
would accept the new compu t er as a tool o:� their organization and
i t would ther efore be u t i l i z ed t o th e ful lest withou t n�s ervation
on their part .
The change in the. locus of decision -making respcn s ibi li ty
has been a b i t more sub t l e than th e cha nge in organi2:ati on
s tructur e . For the mos t par t it ha s consis t ed of shi ft ing to
the computer for "au tomati c " t r eatment cer tain kinds of de­
cis ions whi ch were former ly made by indivi duals on the bas is ,
at l eas t par tly , of judgment and experi ence . !
Dur ing the feas ibi lity s tudy phase in one of th e com pani es which Foxworth s tudi ed , a n organizat iona l change was made
in r egar d to the j ob of Manager of Office Methods and Pr ocedur es .
It might a lso be per ti nen t t o point ou t her e another
organizati onal change which, al though it pr eceded ins tal la­
tion of the compu ter , was con tinued af terward in par t becaus e
of the exis tence of the computer . Thi s change , whi ch was
made in the Con t r ol l ers D epartment at Westinghous e , was
des ig ned pr imarily to fa cili tate the feas ibi l i ty s tudy . I t
involved br eaking ou t a s ect ion that formerly r epor t ed
thr ough an in termediate l evel and increasing i t s au thor i ty
level by dir ect r epor t ing to the Cont roller . 2
This kind of or gani zat ional change appears to be logical and per haps would b e found in many companies uti l i zing EDP in t ha t t he
depar tment is actually a major s ervic e func tion for the entire
company at all l ev el s .
emphas ized .
1 Thi d
....:... , p . 1 43 .
2
Ib id . '
p.
1 42 .
The EDP depar tm ent ' s impo rtance i s thus
26
Changes in the Planning Func ti on - - I n Foxwor th ' s di scus s i on of the planning function he did not specifically say so but
his analysis does indi ca t e that it was af:fect ed to a gr ·�at er
degr ee than the other func ti ons of man ag emen t .
The fol lowing is
his analysis of the planning function and in what way
EDP
affect ed it in th e compani es s tudied .
To pr ovide a fr ame work for a di scuss i on of chan g es ,
the planning process wi ll be cons id er ed as cons i s tinSJ of the
fol lowing s t eps :
1 . Defin i t i on of the prob l em .
2 . Det ermina tion of the alternativ es .
3 . Col lec tion and analys is of per tinent fac t s .
4 . D ecis ion .
Th er e have b een at leas t some chang es in all four of thes e
s teps .
. In the firs t s t ep , prob lem defini tion , the two prin cipal
changes obs erv ed hav e been a br oadening of the scope of g iven
prob l ems and mor e preci s e defini t ion of the pr oblem . The
poss ibi li ty of in tegrat ed data pro cessing has permi t t ed s om e
combinat ion of pa rts of the over -all plann ing that wer e for ­
merly done s eparately . !
In th e ar ea of mor e preci s e defini t ion of probl ems
two things are involv ed . Fir s t , t h e pos s ibi li ty of moving a
sub s tan t i a l par t of the cleri cal work out of the oper ating
depar tments has pe�mi t t ed an addi t iona l concentration on the
basic function of the depar tment . 2
•
•
•
. the incr eas ed us e of ma thematical and s tatis ti cal
t echniqu es has forced a mor e car eful cons ideration of problem
defini tion . The succ essful us e of many of thes e t echniqu�s
r equi res a very car eful defin i t ion of obj ectives and the
factors involved . 3
1 Ibid . '
p . 145 .
2
Ibid . , p . 1 46 .
3
Ib id . ' p . 147 .
27
In th e ar ea of det ermining the al ter natives availab l e ,
the pr incipal differ ence . is the poss ib :�li ty now of examining
a gr eat many more of the al t erna tiv es available . I n t he
pas t , pl anners hav e been forced by time limitat ions to s elect
for fur ther ex:tminat ion only those few al t erna tiv es vrhich ,
on the basis of judgment and pas t expel:ience , looked m os t
promising ,
But in' s eine · ins tances the "best·" pla.n i s no t
1
dis cov er ed .
•
_
•
•
These s ame techniqu es hav e r esul t ed in two cha n9es in
the thi r d s tag e , collection and ana lysis of per t inent fac ts .
The fir s t
is the sys tema tic col l ection of mor e facts .
In some ins tances this is a collection of more of the same
· kind of facts
In 6ther . ins tan ces ther e is a col lection
of differ ent kinds of facts b el i eved more per t inent t o. the
problem involv ed . 2
.
•
•
�
•
It should be noted in this connect ion that the mor e com ­
ple t e collection o f facts means tha t in some ins tan ces the
analysis is bas ed on facts rather than assumpt ions . 3
The s econd kind o:f change involved in thi s ar ea i s the
mor e consis ten t and sys tema tic ana lys is of these facts ,
amoun ting in som.e · i ns tances to s ta!J.dardization of the analys is
process . 4
Th e changes in th e pr eceding thr ee s t eps hav e r esu l t ed
in thr ee changes in the fou r th s t ep - the deci sion . Thes e
chang es ar e better deci s i ons , changes in timing of decis ions ,
and a greater flexibili ty in the planning process . S
Fo:>..""Worth was the only au thor tha t was found to be of the
opinion tha t EDP added fl exibili ty to an operation .
For th e mos t
part nooks and articles el aborated on the fact tha t programming
was expens iv e and t·her efor e not eas i ly chang ed .
1 Ibi d . ' p .
147 .
2
Thi d . : p . 148 .
3 Ib " d
p . 148 .
l
•
'
4.!�·
5
Ibid...:.. ,
p.
148 .
p.
148 .
28
·
--
Wit h r 1:!spect t o fl exibil i ty the pos sib i l i ty of deferr ing
the deci$ ion :j_n i t self adds fl exibi l i ty t o the planning
proc es$ , B" t two other aspects shoul d also be menti oned.­
F i rs t , t h � ��Q� lect ion of t, body of basic data on magneti c
"tape pe:rmi t s �. wide vari ety of manipulat ions that prev iously
woul d h�v e b een both c os tly and time-consuming . These data
can be :r e�rran9ed v ery quickly to prov ide i nformation in a
lll or e usab l e ;form ,
Second , the availabili ty of a rapi d
means of �naly$is permi t s a quick al t eration of the plan to
meet unexp ect ed $i tua ti ons . 1
•
•
•
EDP and the Staff i ng Functi on- -For several years many of
the profes$i9nal $Ociety annu.a l shows hav e had computerized
hiring center s s e t up for att endees to put their name and qual i fications
on
record .
This informa tion would then b e matched
agains t known j ob openings , for par t icipa ti ng compani es .
The fol lowing paragraph from an ar t icle in Bus iness Week
indicates tha t
I BM
now int ends t o en ter thi s f i el d in a big way .
IBM ' s new r ecrui tment informa tion sys t em - IRIS - is the
mos t s oph i s t i ca t ed el ectronic machine yet for matching men
and jobs
( i t is ) a sy s t em for fil ing away prospects
for j obs and recal ling them when j u s t th e r i ght mix of ex ­
perience and education qua l ifi es them for a particular open ing .
The concept is not unique . In fact in the pas t
year or so , a t l eas t thr ee s ervi te companies hav e sprung into
being empl oying proc essing equipment t o ma tch men and j ob s
now that IBM is tryi ng th e sys t em on i tsel f , comput er
ass i s t ed r ecrui ting may soon b ecome widespr ead . 2
•
•
•
•
.
•
•
Sol omon indicates that not on ly is th e s taffing func t ion
' of the manag er aff ected by the innovat ion of EDP into the com pany , but the s taffing function of his superiors is al s o aff ected
1
_!�, p . 149 .
2
"Computer s Mov e up in P er s onnel Ranks ,
October 23 , 1 965 , p. 118 .
11
Bus iness Week ,
29
in tha t the manag er himself who i s in cha::· g e of the EDP act ivi ty
has speci al qua l i fi ca t ions in the r equi remen t s for his par t i cular
j ob .
Whe n a. compu t er i z ed da ta processing sys t em us es an off ­
pr emises compu ter ( time shar ed or i n batch proc es s i ng ) , the
n e eded per sonnel l oading drops down to the r equi r emen ts i m ­
pos ed by dat a conv ersi on . Comput er operation personnel a r e
prov i ded b y t h e compu t�r c en t er .
Sy s t ems analysts and pr o­
grammer s may b e pr ov ided by th e s ame sour ce or by anc•ther
In t hes e cir cums t ances , the admini s t ra t ivE: l oading
suppl iE,r .
a l s o drops , y e t the need to r epor t to the company ' s top l evel
does not dimin i sh . A c ompany using thi s approach to compu ter ­
i z ed data pr oces s i ng can b es t s erv e i t s needs by assi gning
the admin i s tration of data proc essing to a t op - l evel execu­
t ive who und er s tands t h e fiel d bu t do es not devot e fu l l t ime
to i t . As i ndi cated earl i er , mos t of the in-hous e work for
this wor k can b e s upervi sed by a key pun ching ( or equival ent )
supervi s or who r epor ts to the top - l ev el ex ecu tiv e .
That
execu tive mus t also b e abl e to d eal with compu t er -oper a tor
supervi s or s , s y s t ems analys ts , prograr� er s , and t h eir manag ­
er s . The task , ev en as a secondary a s s i g nmen t , is not n eg l i ­
gibl e . Hopefu l ly , thi s book wi l l supply the knowl edg e
r equired by a n execu t ive with the acumen nec essary t o handl e
this kind of task . 1
EDP Impact i n L�ge Corpor ations - - An ar t i c l e from Steel
mag azin e i ndica t es the impa ct that the comput er has had on the
manager ' s j ob in big corporati ons s uch as U . S.
El ectri c , e t c .
Thi s does not mean that sma l ler compan i es hav e
not had s imi lar us es of computer s .
·
St eel , General
Howev er , this i s an indic a -
tion of the u se of EDP t echniques wher e there ar e l a r g e amounts
of funds avai lab l e for r es ea r ch i n to opti mi z ed sys t ems .
Thei r
plans ar e n o t so g randios e a s that ou tl ined in th e prev i otis ly
men t i oned ar t i c l e on the Lockheed Corpora tion ' s planned us e of
comput ers .
1
Th e auth or of this a r t i c l e i ndica t es tha t the t r end
r rv1ng
·
r
.
Sol omon ,
oD .
c 1 t ._ , p . . 64 .
·
30
i s toward opt im i z a t i on of deci s ions and i n wha t way compu ters are
a s s i s t i ng in the plann ing , directing , and cont r o l l ing funct ions .
The f o l l o'lt�� i ng i s an exampl e of U . S . St eel ' s us e of a
comput er i n the plann ing funct i on .
The prob l em cou l d ha·v e b een
s o l v ed by non -compu teri zed t echniqu es , but b ecaus e of i t s com plexi ty , l a r g e - s c a l e s imula tion would only b e pra6ti cal on a
compu t er .
When U . S . Steel Corpora t ion decided to bui l d i ts
tacon i t e concen tr a ti on plan t in Minneso t a i t r an a s imula ­
ti on of the propos ed plant d esi gn on a c ompu t er to s ee if
the propos ed plant des ign wou l d pr ov id e the r equ i r ed b l end ­
i n g of o r es . l
The fol l owin g s ev e r a l quotations i l lus t r a t e t he way in
whi ch manag er s v i ew compu t er s , tha t is as a s s i s tant s , as if they
wer e a s uperhuman b eing .
I t i s pe rhaps t hi s vi ewpoin t on the
par t of ma nag er ial per sonne l that has l im i t ed the s weepi ng
chang es tha t s om e author s hav e pr edi ct ed would c ome .
The tech-
niques and mathema t i cal methods of pr ob l em s olving m en t i oned a r e
not res t ri c t ed t o jus t c ompu t er i zed s olu ti on , excep t that in
l a r g e s ca l e opera t ions the quanti ty of variab l es woul d make i t
impracti ca l t o cons ider the us e of thes e t echniques on any basis
except wi th a c ompu t er .
Compu t e r s are b ei ng us ed as s uper - eff i c i ent "as s i s tants
t o " man ag e r s in j ob s r anging all the way from the compu t a ti on
of labor con tr a c t cos ts to the pinpoi n t ing of compl ex
1
"Sixth Sens e for D eci s i on Mak er s " , St eel , January 2 5 ,
1 9 65 , p . 4 8 .
31
produc t i on -mark e t in g - design i n terr ela t i onships .
that - - thi s i s not a b i g company " t echnol ogy " .
of· al l s i z es a r e cashing in on i t
Not only
Compani es
•
PERT , · CPM , l inear programming , s ta t i s ti ca l analy ­
s i s , and s imula. t i on . Wi th these progr cliDS , manag er s c:an
handl e a g al axy of dai ly and l on g rang e pr ob l ems .
•
Vi r tual ly any definab l e pr ob l em c an b e s ol v ed wi th
av ai lab l e har dwar e and compu t er prog r ams . The most c ommonl y
us ed ones fal l into two cat egories : Network planning ,
s ch edul ing , and c entro! techniqu e s ; and t echniques ba s ed on
oper at ions r es earch .
PERT and CPM .
i s us ed to c on s truc t a "model 1' of th e
proj ect
the t echn iques wer e us ed mai nly to spot crucial
Today ,
j ob s i n a pr oj ect and arr iv e a t an optimum s ch edu l e .
however , management i s a l so usi ng th em to det ermine the
op t imum al l oca t ion of r e s our ces and to pinpoi n t pr obab l e
costs f or each j ob .
•
.
•
The benefi t s of ne twork planni n g t echni ques are many .
They pr ov id e :
1 . A dis cipl ined bas i s for planning .
2 . A c l e ar pic tur e of a pr oj ect ' s s cope .
3 . A means of eval ua t i ng a l t er na ti v e appr oaches ,
s trat eg i es , and obj ectives .
4 . A meth od of pr even t ing the omis s i on of j obs
tha t b e l on g in the pr oj ec t .
5 . A way to show in ter elat ions among j ob s and
de termine the r espons ibi l i t i e s among various
organ i z a t i on s i nvolved .
6 . An aid to r efin ing the proj ect plan .
7 . A m etho d to specify how p l anning has b een done
and for fol l ow up to s ee that it has b een done
tha t way .
B . A t echnique for k eeping pl anning up t o dat e as
the work i s accompl i s hed and as condit ion s chang e .
9 . A cry s t al b a l l tha t a l l ows managem en t t o qu ickly
s ee t he impa c t of variat i o ns from the plan and to
t ake cor r ec t iv e action in an t icip a t i on of troub l e .
Of cour s e CPM and PERT can b e run on a manual bas i s and
in many cases t hey ar e but for a la r g e scal e operation t o
accompl i s h a task i n econ omical time the u s e of a comput er
woul d b e manda tor y .
Th e opera ti ons r es earch (OR ) t echniques h av e one factor
in common : They ' r e ma therc.a ti ca l l y or i ent ed to take advantage
of the compu t er ' s h igh speed comput a t i onal capab i l i t i e s in
work on compl ex mana g em e nt prob l ems .
. two of th e mos t
wi dely us ed opera t i ons r es e ar ch t echn �ques (ar e ) l i n ear
32
pr ogram.m ing . . . a method of scheduling . (and ) simula tion This is a dry run exercis e . Manag emen t can s tudy . in advance
the probable e:ffect on a decis ion or S E:!r ies of d eci si ons .
Management games are clas s ic examples of s imulation .
Str at eg i es can be quickly eval ua ted , mi s takes pinpoin ted , and
planning abi li t i es sharpened .
A hos t of other computer bas ed t echniques ar e b eing
dev el oped . Compu ter for ecas t ing , s ays Univac ' s Dr . Buckland ,
"wh ere we analyz e his tor i cal pa t t erns and th en add fu tur e
proj ect i ons ,
. . We �re r eady to go beyond thi s technique ;
a company ' s marketing proj ections can be continuou s ly
mon i tor ed and new data added to the sys tem as needed .
G . E . is working towar d an "informa tion u t i l i ty concep t "
wher e da ta on a l l company componen ts , ma ter i al , equipment ,
and s ervices are gather ed and f ed into the compu ter .
Or ig inal ope rati ons r es earch t echniques wer e mor e s tatic
than dynamic
The princ ipal advan ce t ha t has t aken place
is in combining dynamic tools { c omputers ) wi th thes e pr evious
s tatic tool s to pr oduce over -all , mor e realis ti c , and much
mor e powerful techniques f or management decis i on making .
•
.
•
The chal lenge - Th e tools for the cr eativ e us e of the
compu ter ar e av ailab le .
. . The need is for management to
take a mor e active role in the cr e'a ti on , implementation and
us e of th es e t echniques . l
Summary - -Thi s chapter has dis cuss ed two aspec t s of the
impact of EDP on manag emen t .
One is the "wha t ought to b e1 1 , the
other is the "wha t is " .
It is g eneral ly a ccepted that in th e pr esent s tat e of art
; in the manag emen t sci ence , the managerial process of obtaining
!
' effici ency is by an i t era tive pro cess .
Tr i al and error and a
con tinuous adj ustment of the sys tems and or ganizati ons , etc . is
ev er pr es ent to compensat e for a lack of perf ect plann ing in the
fir s t place .
P o s tl ey thr oughout his book , and as evi denced by
33
the qu oted s ections , continuously takes p:c es en t day management t o
task f o r fai lure to proper ly plan for the u s e o f EDP sys t ems to
thei r fu l l es t capabi l i ty .
The total sys t em concep t d is cus s ed 1n the Bus i nE!SS Week
ar t i c l e on t h e Lockheed Corporat ion i s s ti l l in the futur e .
The
pr esent impact on manag emen t as indicated by this l i terc,tu r e
s ea r ch haE: been l imi t ed t o the fundamental impr ov ement o f exi s t ing manag er i a l technol ogi es .
The fol l owing concl us ion s from
F oxwor th ' s book fa i r ly wel l s umma r i z es wha t the pr es ent day
impac t of compu ter s has b een as indi ca t ed by al l the a r t i cl es
and b ooks in thi s chapt er .
It mus t , f ir s t of al l , b e ab undantly cl ear tha t no
"r evolu t ion " in any fundam ental s ens e has y e t occu r r ed . To
b e sur e , the u se of comput ers has " economiz ed th e us es of
m en ' s m inds " as was s ugges t ed abov e . But in the t o tal i ty of
business oper a t i ons the ar eas with in whi ch this has happened
In s ome a r eas a subs tant ial par t of the
do not loom larg e .
r ou tine j udgment and deci s i on making has b een t rans fer r ed to
compu t er s .
In i s o l a t ed ins tances thi s has fr eed the peopl e
i nvolved for g r eater concen t r a t ion on the oper ating aspects
of their j ob , but it has not made any bas ic changes in the s e
ope r a t i ons . !
1
F oxwor th , � ci t_:.. , p . 1 53 .
CHAPTER I I I
CASE ANALYSIS OF HOW THE MANAGER IS AFF ECTED
BY COMPUTER INSTALLATIONS
Intr oduc tion - -As indica ted in Chapt er I ( p . 1 3 ) , cas e
analysis would b e one of four approaches us ed in th is thes is to
gain support for th e hypothesis .
This chapter deals with two
specific cas e s tudi es whi ch are g iv en in detail in Appendix "A" .
A bri ef summa ry of the cas es wi ll be given , fo ll owed by
an analys is which wi ll des crib e in wha t manner the cas es suppor t
the hypo thes i s .
The LOCS Cas e
S�_Ex_- -The LOCS sys tem is a compreh ensive "total
sys t em " that is all encompass ing of the ent ir e bus iness opera­
t i on .
The sal i ent f eatur es of the sys t em ar e :
1.
Data are handled on ly on ce manual ly .
2.
A compr eh ens i ve r epor t on any facet of the bus iness i s
avai lab l e on demand .
3.
R emote s tat ions ar e us ed to feed the computer .
4.
Managemen t r epor ts ar e bas ed on a s tatus a g ainst plan .
. A feasibili ty s tudy type of inves tigati on was conduct ed
pr ior to any commi tment of funds or oth er manpower for actual
comput er ins tal l ti on .
a.
This s tudy con sis t ed of an inv esti gation
34
--
35
into wha t types of equipmen t wer e avai labl e , and what other
companies in indus try had done wi th EDP .
Aft er the feasibi lity s tudy , the company then analyzed
· thei r own oper ations .
A s i gnif icant finding was that they
. process ed and r eproces s ed the same data many times .
Th(�y devel ­
oped the "captur e data" conc ept that said that once a piece of
data was entered i nt o a computer i t would never again be handl ed
manually .
In ins tallation of the sys tem , input and output centers
wer e strategical ly located thr oughou t the plant .
Thes e centers
coul d , in addi tion to accepti ng inputs manually , generate action
documen ts of special form , and g enerate and acc ept inputs from
punched cards and tape .
The sy s t em i t s elf starts usi ng data the fi rst time any
bit of eng ineering i nformati on i s rel eas ed .
Thi s da ta could b e
ei ther a blue pr int o r advance b i l l of ma ter ial s , etc .
From thi s
data , PERT and other follow-up sys tems are au tomati cal ly
triggered .
Inventory is aut omati cal ly checked , or de rs wr it t en
and manufactur ing schedules generat ed , al l in accordance wi th
information fed the comput er as par t of the plan along wi th the
eng ineer ing informa tion .
Var ious types of r epor ts are generated aut oma tical ly and
del ivered to the r espons ib le per sonnel for action .
These r epor ts
are "exception principl e " in thei r content .
Th e sys t em can also be us ed for modeling : to try out
var ious plans pr ior to actual comm itmen t of resour ces to a
par ticular appr oach .
36
After two years of operation , the Librascope manag em en t
fel t tha t the sys tem was a success and had alr eady achi ev ed their
ori ginal obj ectiv e .
LOCS Case Analysis
P lanning - -Th e early planning phases cons is t ed of an
inv es t igation into wha t th e extent of EDP use shoul d b e , what
sys tems wer e available , and wha t the cos t impact of var i ous
deci sions would be .
In addi ti on , very earl y in the pl ann ing
phas e , consid erat ion was given on how to handle the other four
funct ions of the manag er and als o the extens i on of planning to
other departmen ts .
Up to thi s poi nt i t appears that the only
management per s onnel involv ed were top management and Indu s trial
Eng ineer in g ( IE ) management .
During the s econd phas e of R es earch
&
Devel opmen t ,
operating managers of other depar tments wer e brought into the
planning phas e .
I t was thei r j ob to confer wi th the sys tem
desi gners to insur e that t he "total EDP sys tem" would adequa tely
ful fil l their needs .
At this poin t they undoub t edly realized
tha t changes in organi zat ion and s taff would b e r equired in order
t o u t i l i z e the sys t em to i t s utmos t .
Thes e managers , in viewing
their own operations with cr itical introspect ion as they had to
at thi s time , would hav e impr ov ed the company ev en if no EDP
would hav e been ev entually ins tal led .
Plans to this poi nt wer e
in r egard to the future usage of comput ers and were gen erated
unas si s ted by EDP .
After the compu ter
1N3. S
ins tal led it became a manager i a l
37
tool for planning .
la ting
Taking the compu t er 1'off th e l ine11 and s imu ­
(model i ng } c hang es to pr oduc t i on pians by pr oduc ti on con ­
trol enab led t hei r managem ent to pr edi c t operations and g ener a t e
plans t o
c.
h i gh er degr ee o f accuracy than ever b efor e a t t a i nab l e .
! The manag E!rs i nvolv ed , in or der to use this tool effectiv ely ,
wou ld hav P had t o be trai n ed thems e lv es i n the capab i l i t i es and
limi ta t ion s of th eir par t icu lar EDP sys t ems .
A ctual infu t s and
detai l g ene r a t i on r equir ed to work wi th th e model would b e
handled b y fir s t l in e superv i s o r s and empl oyees .
T h e u s i ng
managers would n o t n ec es sa r i l y have had t o take any formal train­
ing i n compu t er us ag e for t hi s pha s e of the oper a t ion .
Staffing - -Many changes in fundam ental talents and j ob s
throughout the company w e r e i ndi c a t ed .
Thes e ar e l i s t ed as
foll ows :
1.
Keypunch operator s .
2.
Use of d ispa t ch s ta t ion s .
3.
Us e of inpu t cen t er s .
4.
Handl ing , car e and s to rag e of punched cards and tap e .
5.
F l exowr i ter oper a t ion .
6.
How does one r eque s t informa tion from th e compu t er?
7.
How do es one r ead th e compu t er r epor ts?
B.
Wha t informa t ion could b e r eques t ed from the computer?
9.
How t o u t i l i z e "excep t i on pr inc ip l e " r epor ts rather than
tot al informa t i on r epor ts tha t ar e c l as s i cal ly us ed .
Th e mana g er
mus t r eal i z e tha t what is not p r in t ed ou t i s n o t impor t an t to
one ' s own l ev el of mana g em ent .
The plan t o handle the s taffing func t i on by r etr aining ,
38
t r ans fer , and a t tr i t ion was exc el l ent .
Management and empl oyee
cooper a t ion is es s ent ial t o smooth implemen ta tion of an}' n ew
idea . l
The human problems exc eed the t echn i cal pr ob l ems in com-
plexi ty and in diffi cul ty .
Fai lur e to r eali z e the pr es f.mce and
· nature of thes e prob l em s cr ea t es a hi gh r i sk of f a i l u r e for the
. en t i r e under t ak in g .
We may encou n t er cons id erab l e agg r E�ss i on on
the par t of i ndividuats who ar e s ubj ect to change .
We rr.ay find
that the amoun t of s l oppy or car ele s s work i ncreases .
If the
employ ees acc ept the new rules ( laws ) and concepts , then their
w i l l i n gn ess to cooperate wi t h a chang e in the operat i on wi l l
enhance the pr obab i l i ty of s uc c ess , or as s ta t ed by Ch es t er I .
Bar nard ,
"
•
.
.
authori ty depends on a cooper ative per s onal
a t t i tude of i ndividuals . 1' 2
The manag er mus t know h ow t o p i r e the talents pr ev i ously
men t i oned .
He mus t know wha t cons ti t u t es good performance in
each j ob u t il i z in g thes e talents .
The manag er ' s abi l i t y to
handl e thes e two i t ems of the s taffing func t i on can be gained by
associ ation w i th peers ( such as in pr o fess i onal s oci et i es ) in
other bus ines s es alr eady empl oying people wi th these talents , by
con tacts wi t h the s el l ers of equi pmen t , by exp er i en c e in other
: depar tments in h i s own company , or by l i t erature s tudy .
1
Ri chard G . Canning , El ec tronic Data Process ing for
Bus i n ess and Indu s tr,¥_ , (New York : John Wi l ey a nd Sons , Inc . ,
1 956 ) , p . 3 1 6 .
2
che s t er I . Barnar d , The Fun c t i ons of the Execu t i v e
(Ma ssachus e t t s : Harv ard Uni v er s i ty Pres s , 1 962 ) , p . 175 .
Tbe manag er ' s mos t heroi c effor t in staffi ng was during
the changE�ov er phas e .
H e had to keep a tt1: i ti on of per sc•nnel to a
minimum , becau se to hire or transfer p ersonnel and train them to
temporarily fi ll
a
j ob tha t was to b e shor tly eliminated would
· b e a was t ed expense if i t could be av oided .
0�_2ani zi ng - - 1 1The introduction of a computer makes i t
ess ential t o r e - thin k on a new basis the whol e s t ructur e and
operat ion of an organizat ion . " !
A stabl e , wel l defined organi -
zation would b e es s ential to an advanced t echnol ogy mana gement
sys tem ' s efficient us e , such as the LOCS sys t em .
P eter F .
Drucker poin ts out tha t
The new technol og y wi ll demand the und ers tanding of th e
principl es of pr oduction
i t wi ll r equir e tha t the
ent ire busi ness be s een , under s t ood and managed as an integrated pr ocess .
This proce�s requires a maximum of
s tabi li ty and ab ili ty to ant icipate futur e ev ents . 2
•
•
•
If func t ions wer e t o be r eshuffled , and such i t ems as the del egation of au thori ty to perform par ticular functions changed , the
quantity of r epor ts and to wh a t l ev el of management· they would
be s ent would be changed each time .
In particular i t would b e
necess ary to chang e the detai l cont ents of r epor ts if original ly
' cer tain management l evels in an organiz ation wer e to get r epor ts
wi th speci fic information per taining to thei r job only .
1
If
A . B . F r i elink , Economics of Automati c Data Processing
(Am s t erdam , Hol land : Wor th -Hol land Publi shing Co . , 1 965 ) , p . 58 .
2
P e t er F . Drucker , The Practice of Manag ement (New York :
Harper & Bro ther s Publi shers , 1 954 ) , p . 371 .
40
these changes ar e extr e.11e they coul d r equire major r epr ogramming
whi ch is expensive to accompli sh . l
Thes e changes coul d ev en
r equir e the phys ical movement of inpu t/output s tations .
For the for egoing reason managers mus t car efu lly cons ider
· their organi zation s tructur e .
They mus t clearly defi ne ( i n
wri t ing ) the functions and r espons ibi l i t ies of each s egment of
thei r opera tion .
In ·so doing they mus t prognos ticate the ir modus
operandi after the EDP sys t em will be in ful l blown operation .
If a pr oper job of definiti on of Func t i ons
&
Res ponsi -
bili t ies has b een made and per sonnel trained to pr operly r espond
to s t imuli produced by the exception repor ts i t would appear that
a manager ' s span of control could be incr eas ed , at leas t wi th
respect to numb er of function s under his con tr ol .
Drucker indi -
. cates that
Tradi tional ly a manag er has been expec t ed to know one
or mor e functions . This wi l l no longer be enough . Th e
manag er of tomor row mus t b e ab le to s ee the bus iness as a
whol e and to in tegrate his function wi th i t . 2
Dir ectinR- -The na tur e of dir ect ion should change con siderably in th e Libras cope _ company from befor e to after the
. installation of the LOCS sy s t em .
In a strictly organi zed
s tructur e i t wou ld b ecome possible to shift the emphas i s of
di rection from order giving on the part of a superi or to del egation as a means of dir ect ion for a.l l of the routine repeti tive
1Fr i el i nk , � ci t . , p . 3 9 -47 . Data in this chapt er in
the book is a cos t analysis of a typi cal repr ogramming effor t .
Cos ts for major programming runs i n to man years .
2
Dr ucker , op . ci t . , p . 373 .
---
41
ass ignment s and many of th e speci a l pr oblems .
this , Koon tz
& 0 ' Donnel
In s uppor t of
s ays that , "The g:couping of duties into
subdivi s ions of the ent erpr ise inv olv es delegating au thor i ty to
perform these dut ies . 11 1
The order s g iv en would b e the r esul t of
pr oblems brought out by the exception prin cipl e repor ts ..
I£ th e acti on requir ed to correct pr obl ems i s wi th in the
scope of poss ib le i nfluence of fi rst l ine workers it may b e
poss ibl e t o del egate the au thority to act dir ectly from excepti on ·
This would be par ticu larly t rue of control fur:: ct ions
repor ts .
such as production control .
The manager would r equ i r e no speci al training on the
comput er in this case .
His di r ect ion func tion would b e changed
in respect on ly to the level of r esponsibil i ty .
A middle
manager w ould probably find tha t his � espons ib ili ty has increased
as a result of th e computer usage .
Cont r o l ling- -- In the LOCS case the greates t impact on any
manag er ial func tion was on control .
th e manager from befor e - t o -af t er
The changes which affec t ed
LOC S
installation are :
1.
Gr eater amount of informa tion availab l e on demand .
2.
Mor e accur a t e informat i on .
3.
Sel ective i nformation .
4.
Real t ime informa tion .
5.
Exception r epor ts .
Thi s informa tion cou ld b e avai lab l e to managers without
1
Koontz
&
O ' Donn el l , op. ci t . , p . 5 6 .
· 42
t he us e of EDP but c o s t wou l d b e prohibi t:Lv e .
Fr i e l ink s ta t es
tha t :
In r efer en ce t o manual pr oc es s i ng , i t
co s t s ar e di r ec t l y pr opor t iona l
pr o c es s i ng
I t c l early f o l l ows
pr o c es s i ng i s l es s
Onc e
. manager
that a t a
cer t a i n poin t i n t im e ,
we�e made and f ed t o the compu t er
t ha t al l was wel l un l es s
ceiv ed indica t i ng an ou t - o f - con t r o l s i t ua t i on ;
t i on man a g er a s s um ed that s chedul e w a s
n o t i fi ed .
•
r.1ac h i n e
expen s i v e t han manual p r o c es s i n g . l
the p l ans
c ou l d a s s ume
can b e s a i d that
t o l abour
the
a r epor t was
e.g . ,
re-
t h E! produc -
on or a head un l e s s
Th e purchas ing a g ent a n d h i s
expedi t ers wou l d on ly b e
a l e r t ed to a c t i o n by th e pa s t du e m a t er i a l r epor t i f s om e th in g
wer e n o t
d el i v er ed . on t i m e o r i f a shi pment w a s r ej ec t ed ,
ac coun t ing
d epa r tm en t
r un un l es s
over t l y n o t i f i ed .
cou ld b e a s sur ed bud g e t was not b e i n g over
The m a i n advan tag e of
i ts
r ea l
t ime
an
time r ep o r t i ng
EDP in
c o n t r o l op erati ons
capab i l i t y . 2
The ma nag er
to t ak e corr e c t i v e ac t i on in mos t
out -of - c on tr o l
a n d the
condi t i on i s
cas es .
At
l i es
in
i s n o t i f i ed in
the very
f l agg ed befo r e i t b ecom e s
l eas t ,
exces -
s iv e .
When a s i tuat ion war r an t s
total
t h e manag er
can ob tain
i n f orma t i on on any pr ob l em to a l l ow h im t o di g as
n e c e s s ary
1
t o mak e an op t imum dec i s i on .
F r i e l i nk ,
2
C ompu ter
Inc . ,
it ,
R ichard W .
Sy s t ems " ,
1 9 62 ) ,
p.
56 ,
9P ·
cit . ,
R eyn o l d s ,
SY STB�1 S
-----
p�
deepl y as
Hi s deci s i ons w i l l b e
55 .
' M odern Manag em e n t Conc ep t s
(D et r o i t :
of
Ame r i c <'l.n Da ta Pro c e s s ing
43
inher ently better becau s e of the gr eater accuracy of information
on whi ch he · i s ba:; ing decis ions .
The accuracy an d vo lume of s elective information would be
of par tict:.lar advantage when "aft er the fact 1 ' inv es t i gat ions are
· conducted by the manager in or der to take pr eventativ e measur es
so that an out -of-control s i tuat ion wi l l not develop aga.in .
Wi th th e s el ectiv e capabi l i ty of informa tion dis s emina tion that LOCS gives , i t i s mos t impor tant that the manager know
his sys t em s o that he may ask for all the pr oper informa t i on in
order to pr event bias to his vi ewpoint .
di s advan tage of the LOCS sys tem .
In
a
This one aspect is a
manual sys tem of r eporting
and notification the manager , in perusing repor ts per sona lly ,
might notice ot h er appl ic abl e facts than the ones he was
; specifical ly looking for and us e this . addi t ional inf orma ti on
accordingly . Wi th LOCS no such r eminder exis ts .
Summary- -The manag er g ets involved wi th the ins tal lat ion
of an EDP sys t em long befor e it i s in us e .
Consider ation during
this planning phas e mus t b e g iven to the type and quantity of information requi red and to how to organi ze properly for opt imum
util izat ion of EDP informa t ion s y s t ems .
Once in us e the sys tem
is primarily us ed to as sis t the manag er in his con trol funct i on
by supplying him exception repor ts {which ar e deviati ons from
plans ) in real time .
Job Location and Shop Order Upda ting
wi th Punch Cards
Summarz- -This cas e was chos en in order to ill us trate a
44
minimum type of EDP in s talla ti on .
The compu t er was us ed for
l i t t l e mo ::: e t han a g l o r i f i ed typewr i ter .
Howev er , the nanagement
of the conpany was abl e to eff ect a defini t e i n cr ease in
efficiency of oper a t i on .
In conclu s i on , th ey fel t that t h ei r
obj ec tive had b een accompl i s hed .
The us e of a compu t er was cons ider ed in the fi r s t pl ace
b ecaus e the t imel i n ess of a mon thly r epor t was i n adequa t e for
al l owing managem ent to take action whi ch cou l d cor r ec t ou t - of­
con tr ol product i on s i tua t i ons and t hus pr ec lu de s ch edul e s l ippages .
I t was decided t o u s e exis ting comput er t ime ( n ow u s ed by·
account ing only ) for th e purpos e of generat ing pr oduc t ion con ­
trol s ch edul es a nd for shop or der upda t ing .
The produc t i on con tr ol s chedul es a r e g enerated by maki ng
a s epa r a t e card for each l o t .
l ot s in t he shop .
Ther e -ar e thr ee t hous and av erage
The cards ar e manua lly sor t ed and then run
t hr oug h t he compu t er t o g e t the s chedu l es pri n t ed for each
operating depar tment .
Thi s i s , in ess ence , their s ys t em .
Th e sy s t em was i n s tal led w i thout any dual i ty of a manual
sys t em .
No probl em was encount er ed during ins t a l l a t i on .
Th e r epor ts now come out weekly , a r e about four hours old
when i s sued , and ar e pr oduced wi th l ess t otal manpower .
In the
event a set of cards is des t r oyed , it can b e eas ily r eg en er a t ed
by r ef er r ing to pas t r epor t s and updat ing .
Shop or der updati ng i s accompl i s hed by pu t ting new order
inform a t i on as i t i s r eceiv ed on s epa r a t e punched cards .
The
cards ar e f i l ed · in a fol l ow - up fi l e , and , as th ey come du e , the
cards ar e pu l l ed and s ent to the comput er for l i s t i ng .
F r om
45
here on , the sy s t em cal ls for a manual compar ison of this lis t of
required dates agains t the actu a l expect ed da tes as determin ed
from the pr eviously descr ib ed schedul ing sys tem .
Ea.ch week the sales departmen t prov ides a follm�-up
. s ervice for their cus tomers and informs each cus tom er o1' the
status of their or der .
Raybestos Divi s ion Cas e Analys is
Between the LOCS cas e and thi s next cas e , The Raybes tos
Divi s i on , the minimum/maximum ext r emes of EDP impact on the
managerial func t ions ar e r eal i z ed .
In ana lyzing the Raybestos
cas e , wher e these con tra s ts ar e marked they wi l l be poin ted ou t .
Plannin�- -No basic change was made t o the exis ting sys tem
, except to break schedule into s emi -weekly incr ements i n s t ead of
days , so as to accommodate 80 columns on a punch card .
Since the
sys t em was des igned to mer ely speed up the r esponse t ime of
exis ting r epor ts and sav e cos t , no planning was r equir ed of
management except the s y stem impl ementation i t s elf .
StaffinSJ--The impact on the per sonnel involv ed was
minimal .
Only four people had a maj or change to their j obs ; i . e .
twelve hours each , on ce a month , that was pr eviously devoted to
making the monthly r epor t .
The shop order updating was a
mE chani zat ion of a manual sys t em which
did
not appear to chang e
per s onnel ' s job much at all .
Organi_?i!!Q- -No r eas on for r eorgani zation resul t ed fr om
the sys t em ' s in s tal l a t i on .
Thi s is in contras t to LOC S wher e i t
seems that such great effici ency
wou l d
b e gained i f chang es in
46
persona l j obs wer e to be made that i t was advi sable to consi der
organi zat i ona l ch anges .
Direc tin_g.- - Th e weekly pr oduction control fol low -up
meeting s which wE re attended by depar tment manag er s , depar tment
: expedi t ers and th eir supervi sion , had the r esul t of g et ting high
·
level imp,� tus to problems .
Appar ently thi s had not occur r ed
befor e .
In contras t t o th e LOCS cas e , the l evel of mana9 ement making deci sions of cer tain impor tance appears t o have mov ed up
the ladder to a higher echel on .
Thi s shift of deci s ion making
to a higher echel on is in con tras t to a fundamental obj ectiv e of
EDP sys t em installati on .
I t is normal ly des irab l e t o shift
decis ions to the lowest pos s ib l e l ev el of management . 1
Control ling- -The improv emen t . of control in both the
schedul e tracking and shop order updating was l imi t ed to an
incr eas e in fr equency of r epor ts (once a week ins tead of once a
mon th ) , and a r educti on in th e delay of the r epor t in publica tion .
Summary - -The Raybes tos Divi sion use of EDP sat i sfied i t s
1
Richard G . Canning , El ectronic Da t a Pr ocessing for
Bus iness and Indus try ( N ew York : John Wiley and Sons , Inc . , 1 956 )
p . 4 . "A broad defi nit ion of electron ic da ta proces s ing is :
The use of el ec tronic compu ters and data pr ocess ing machines to
aid in the fol l owing bus iness operat ions :
1 . Lower - l evel manag ement deci s ion -making oper ati ons ;
2 . Issuing the neces sary paperwork to ins truct the org ani zation
in accor dance wi th thos e deci s i ons ;
3 . Measur ing the actual pr ogress and f eeding i t back for manage­
ment cont rol . "
47
r equirements .
The pr oduct line s tabi l i ty al lowed the i111plement a-
tion of a s impl e minimum EDP sy s t em .
The impact on planning ,
s taffing , and organiz ing manager ial functions was minimal wi th
only the dir ecting and control ling functi ons changing to a
• per ceptible degr ee .
I
.i
.I
CHAPTER IV
MAIL QUESTIONNA IRE SURVEY
Introduction -.-This chapter wi ll pr es ent the metl�od ,
results , and analy s i s of the ma il ques ti onnair e s urvey .
A c opy
of the ques ti onnair e wi l l be found in Appendix B ; a copy of the
accompanying letters and r eturn env el ope in Appendix C ; a copy
of the keysort card us ed for analys i s of resul t s in Appendix D ;
and a compl ete tabulation of r esul ts in the table of Appendix E .
The mos t per tinent ques tion is number s ixt een ( 1 6 ) which
summariz es the manager ' s feel ings regarding his five basic
functions .
The r esu l ts to thi s qu es t ion are pr es ented firs t .
For each of the five bas ic managerial functi ons , speci fic
quest ions in th e qu es tionna ire wer e di rected toward det ermining
A tabu ­
_
lation and analysi s of each func tion wi ll be given separa tely .
in what way EDP had specif ically impacted the r esponder .
The r eader should � oti ce tha t the answers in column ( 10 ) from a
! nega tive vi ewpoint can be us ed to suppor t the conclus ion s drawn
_ in the ana ly si s .
Con tents - -Th er e are th ree bas ic types of ques tions in th e
ques ti onnaire :
1 . · Questions wer e ask ed r egarding the indivi dual an swering the
questi onnaire ; e . g . , his background , and pr es ent empl oyment
cir cums tances .
48
49
2.
Ques tion s wer e asked to pinpoint wi th a � or � answer the
vari ous ways in whi ch a comput er had impac ted the j ob of" the
. individual answering the ques tions
.3.
•
The third type of ques ti on was des ign ed to allow th(� answerer
; to expr ess in his own words how the compu ter had impacted his
·
j ob .
The qu esti onnair e wa s l imited to one page fron t and back
and for the mos t par t questions wer e answer ed by mul tiple choi ce
or one word des cripters .
Thos e qu estions of lesser impor tance
and thos e requ i r ing sen t ence type answers wer e pu t on the back
s ide .
(Not e : As i t turned ou t this paid off , as a number of
responders did not answer the r ev er s e s ide even though th e
cover ing l etter ins truc t ed them to . )
Recomm enda tions as to desi gn .of ques tions and the ques tionnaire i ts elf wer e us ed from l i teratur e s tudy , l
Experimental
sampl e ques ti onnai res wer e tri ed on various personnel .
Sinc e th e ques tionnai re was to be anonymously answer ed ,
i t was g iven to two people who were known qui t e well as to background , etc . , in order to t es t wh ether others woul d interpr et
. the ques t i ons the way intended .
Wi th only minor exc epti ons , they
di d answer the ques ti onna i r e wi th proper in tent .
Techniqu e of the Survey- -The na tiona l offi ce of the
American Pr oduction on Inv ent ory Cont rol Society (AP ICS ) was
1
Mi ldred Par ten , Surveys , P ol l s and Sampl es Practical
Pr o�edur�� ( Nei'J York : Harper & Brothers Publ i shers , 19 50 )
--
50
con tacted in Ch icago .
Their organiz ati on has about 5000 memb ers
na tiona lly , wi th 300 of thes e memb ers in the Los Ang el es chapter .
Since they did not publ ish a ros t er , they did agree to
ma il th e ques t i onnai res to 1000 of their memb ers , t o b e s el ected
by taking an equal number from each of thei r s ections .
In
addi t i on to the above , 300 were mai led to al l the memb ers in the
Los Angel es s ection .
The nati onal surv ey had a l e t t er from the pr es ident r e­
ques ting their assis tanc e and had my self -addres s ed env elope for
their reply .
The Los Angeles s ecti on survey had just the ques ti onnaire
and a n o te from the head of the Los Ang el es chapt er r equ es t ing
tha t th e ques ti onnai r e be mailed to me giv ing my home address .
After receiving th e answers , the reply envel opes , and
original ques tionnaire , Royal McB ee Keysort cards wer e cross
indexed by numbering .
Th en the indicat ed ans·wers wer e edge notch
punched in the Key s or t card for the purpos e of at tributes
corr ela tion .
Aft er separation into category , the i n dividual
comments by the r espondents could b e r ead by pu lling the appro.­
pri. a 'te answer sheet by code numb er .
The questionnaire in Appendix B i s pr es ent ed in thr ee
pag es ; in real i ty , it was one sheet of paper front and back .
The
qu e s t i on numb ers adj a c ent to the boxes are for coding purpos es to
the keysor t cards .
Thes e numb er s di d appear on the ques t i onnair e.
R esul t s of th e Surv ey- -Ov er fou r hundr ed thi rty repl ies
to the nationa l ma il ing wer e r eceiv ed .
A number ju s t r etur ned
the qu es ti onnaire unanswer ed and cour teou s l y explained tha t either
51
they didn ' t feel the ques t ions app l i ed t o th em or tha t th ey coul d
not under s tand the ques t i ons .
The coun t of the answer s was det ermined by measur i ng the
heig h t of a s tack of cards i n a parti cu l ar cat egory wi th a
; vern i er caliper .
The heigh t of the s t ack was then divi ded by the
average thickness of a sing l e card ( . 0092 ) .
On a sampl E! check
the accuracy of this meth od was found to be wi thin two per c en t .
The ques t i ons whi ch r equi r ed a wri t t en ans wer a r e not
tabu l a t ed .
Thi s inf orma t i on was used t o es tab l i s h the ques ti ons
which wer e asked du r i n g the i n t ervi ews and to ass i s t in the con ­
clus ions if pos sib l e .
Th e larg es t s i ngl e category of manag er s answeri ng the
ques tionnair e wer e from pr oduc t i on con t r ol .
Thi s category was
s el ec t ed to s tudy in mor e depth b eca �s e of a suffi cient number- of
answer s ava i l able .
Append ix
E
pr es ent s t h e tabula ted r esul ts of
the surv ey includi ng a b r eakdown i n t o the vari ous categor i es
s tudi ed .
In sub - ca t egor i e s o ther than tha t of pr odu c t ion con trol
managers , not all of the answer s wer e tabula t ed becaus e i t was
• fel t tha t they coul d not help in the ana lys i s .
Th e a nswers wer e
: sort ed into ca t egor i es whi ch are n ot pr es ent ed .
However , the
: resul ts were not si g n if ic an t .
Ana ly s i s of R esul ts
Manager i al Impact - -A s tat em ent can b e made that mor e
managers who wor k in depar tments tha t us e
EDP
feel they hav e b een
aff ec t ed to a g r ea t er ex tent than thos e managers t ha t ar e work ing
in . compan i e s · where o t her depa. r tments a r e t he users of
ECP .
Thi s
--
52
con clusion was dr awn from the da ta s or t on Question ( 1 6 ) of
manag er s into var ious categor ies of compu·::: er us age .
ThE� differ -
ence was mos t noticeab l e in the control ling furiction and t o a
less er degree in the plann ing function .
Di recting , orgz.ni zing ,
The fol lowing tabular
: and s taffing , showed almo st no di ffer ence .
, resu l t s suppor t this conc lus ion .
TABLE 1
Tabular R esul ts Showing Manag er ial Impact
by Departmen t Usag e
.
r::
0
• r-{
...,
(/) 0
(l) z-
.
&
.
Ques t i on &
Cat egory
16
(3 )
(2 )
(1 )
Answer
(/)
1-t
(/)
1-t
"0
0
u
r-l (/)
r-l r::
<X: .:X:
B5
B6
B7
B8
B9
Bl O
Bl l
Bl2
Bl3
Bl4
Bl5
Bl6
63
122
175
154
150
43
113
158
78
75
156
121
Bl7
BIB
81 9
38 15
90 50
239 127
(4)
(l)
�
r-l
•-l
• *
0\
.f-> 0..
�
u (/)
0. �
u o..
(/) 0.. Cl
CI.l
1-t
r::
.c: ro (l)
..., .c: (/)
0 ..., �
(9 )
(10 )
8
24
44
29
36
7
19
38
16
7
36
29
0
23
56
4
4
3
6
4
1
7
3
1
5
4
3
4
5
4
4
0
2
5
1
0
4
0
1
4
2
0
4
1
1
*
(l)
g@
0\ c?; @
ro r-l (l) � (l) (l)
r::
cd r-l (/)
0
z
(l)
(/) *
...,
P. O..
<X: �
( 5 ) (6 )
<X:
(7 )
(8 )
*
0..
•
Cl 0
w u
0 r::
Z • r-{
Of the fol lowing
five basi c funct ions of a
manager , to what
degr ee have com puters affec t ed/
assis ted you?
N/C
Sl igh t
Extr eme
N/C
Sl igh t
Extreme
N/C
Sl ight
Extr em e
N/C
Slight
Extreme
N/C
Slight
Ex tr eme
Plan
Staff
Organ i z e
Di r ect
Control
!
*P r o duct1 on Control Manag er s on ly
""'-.-- ---
.
-----
'
26
66
98
76
85
20
55
82
43
32
81
67
0
7
4
4
6
1
1
6
4
1
6
4
0
li
p..J
53
Columns {8 ) and { 9 ) ar e the per tinent r esul t s in this
For exampl ·� , in the Planning func t i on , a total of s even ty ­
cas e .
s ix answer s wer e Production Con trol ManagE!r s in departme·nt s us ing
EDP .
El ev en wer e in depar tments in compani es wher e oth�r than
·their own depar tments us ed EDP .
Fifty- seven percent ( 57% ) of' the ·
.manag ers in depar tments using EDP indica ted t hat they f'el t an
extreme impact on their job had occurr ed .
Only twen ty - s even
percen t ( 2 7% ) in the o ther category f'elt thei r job had b een
impacted ext r emely by a computer .
A similar analy s i s of' the
other func tions would r eveal like r esul ts .
Planning- -Ques ti ons { 1 9 ) , ( 2 0 ) , {21 ) , {25 } , and {2 6 }
suppl ied answers which should help in determin ing in wha t way the
managerial planning funct ion had been impac ted .
TABLE 2 pres ents
,thes e resul t s .
The concl us ions whi ch wer e drawn f'r om analyzing the
answers to the ques tions are :
Q. 19.
Mos t manag ers depend on their own EDP depar tmen t to keep
them abreast of' comput er t echnol ogy .
Q , 20 .
In mos t cas es the r esponder s f'el t that their computer had
been added to improve repor ti ng .
Th is· could indica t e a des ire on
·the part of' manager ial personnel , who wer e respons ibl e f'or the
deci s ion to add EDP , to improve t hei r control func tion .
Q . 21 .
• '
Mos t manager s had taken or in tend to take cour s es ·on
introducti on t o computers .
A few had taken cour ses in the oper a­
tion of' compu t ers or had taken no s chool ing at all in regard to
compu t er s .
to
a
Since educat ion is one aspect of' a manager ' s job that
great degr ee he controls hims el f , it can be fur ther concluded
54
that the manag er is of the opinion tha t co u r s es on the introduc t ion to use of the compu ter i s all he needs t o know .
TABLE 2
Ques tions Which Indicate in Wha t Way the
Planning Function was Affec ted
Producti on Control
Manag er s only .
.
.
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a z
(1 )
19
20
21
25
.
Ques t i on
and
Category
Answer
(2 )
(3 )
Sal esman
How do you or ·
Not done
your manag er
keep informed on EDP Dep t .
changes in com puter t echno 1 og:Y?
Why was the com - Sav ing
Repor ting
pu t er added in
Oth er
y our case?
None
Wha t kind of
cours es have you Operation
taken or do you In tro duction
i n t end to tak e
on comput ers?
Yes
Do you r equire
No
i n your . own
pos i t i on a know l edge of com puters?
Yes
In your total
No
exper i ence was
ther e ever a r ev er ting from a
compu ter back
to a manual
sys t em?
..
Q)
'd .
0 0
u z
.
.
.
(/)
1-1
0>
;s:
r-1 (/)
r-1 s::
<r: <r:
(/)
+>
P. n.
Q) Q
Q p:l
(/)
).t
Q)
0\
ro
r-1 s::
,.., ro
o::x: �
r-1 0>
r-1 (/)
<r: ;::l
0\
+>
+> 0
(f) O n.
ro o::x: o
0>
p:l
.... �
Q)
+> U (/)
O::X: n. ;::l
·-··-----··
(/)
1-1
Q)
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n.
s::
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(6 )
(7 )
B28 71
B29 72
B30 243
31
32
128
1
1
11
10
7
60
2
6
5
4
3
0
B31 1 09
B32 2 65
B33 90
Rl
81
R2
73
54
111
22
35
35
6
6
3
0
2
19
61
17
11
13
0
9
1
4
0
1
1
1
1
2
R3
23 1
1 49
8
64
11
7
L27 129
L28 141
128
69
B26 120
B27 23 5
63
115
(8 )
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----
------
:>.
s::
ro
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( 4 ) (5 )
..
26
s::
ro n.
.r::! Cl
+> p:l
( 9 ) (10 )
55
Q . 25 .
Mos t manager s fel t tha t they r equi red a knowledg e of com -
put ers i n thei:c j ob .
j
I
This could indi cate a feel ing that they
could in some way influence •;he sys tem , hence i t impacts the
-planning function .
Q . 26 .
This par ticular ques ti on_ was answer ed in more detail and
volume than any other .
TABLE 3 .
An
The tabula tion of r esul ts is shown in
!:
'
a t t empt was madE! to ca t egorize t he an swers .
'I
TABLE 3
I
I
R eas ons for Rev er s ion from an EDP to
a Manual Sy s t em
Item
'•j
I'
,I
Numb er
Answer Category
1.
Manual sys t em prov ed to be less expensive
2.
EDP repor ts wer e un timely
3.
Inadequat e planning : nai ve manag emen t ,
wrong appl ication of EDP , inaccur acy
4.
Arb i trary d ecisions : mis oneism , budg et cuts
5
5.
Programming errors
7
6.
Mi scel laneous : lack of fl exib i l i ty , r equired
b ecaus e sys tem was in process of chang e ,
etc .
.
.
.
•
.
.
.
•
21
•
.
17
.
�
.
. .
52
.
18
The numb er of answer s in cat egory thr ee indica te that in about
one - thir d of the cases wher e EDP rever t ed to a manual sys t em i t
was due t o the fai lure of management to pr oper ly plan .
Staffin2_- -Qu es tions ( 1 3 ) , (14 } , ( 1 5 ) , and (21 } can be
analyzed . to determin e
in
what way manag ers fel t their staffing
functi on has b een aff ec ted .
Pr edom ina t ely th e que sti ons asked
56
in this category wer e mean t t o determine how managers vi ewed the
per s onnel tha t they a r e now r equi r ed t o hir e as a r esul t of the
innova t i on of
EDP .
TABLE 4
Ques ti ons Per taining t o th e Staffing Fun c t i on
P rodu ct i on Con trol
Manager s only
-
..
.
1=:
0
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QJ
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(1 )
Qu est i on
and
Ca t egory
Answer
(2 )
QJ
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�
QJ
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nS
r-1 1=:
r-1 nS
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(/) 0 n..
nS � Q
�
QJ
r-! o<S
QJ
� u (/)
� 0.. ::s
1=:
nS O..
� Q
� �
(/)
�
QJ
�
�
o
1=:
•rl
QJ
(/)
�
0..
Q
�
;::...
1=:
Ill
0.
0 0
u z
r-1 (/)
r-1 1=:
� �
(3)
(4 )
(5)
(6 )
(7 )
N/C
More
Les s
L24
L2 5
L26
172
204
2
89
106
1
3
9
0
37
40
1
9
4
0
5
2
0
.
r-1
r-1
�
QJ
(/)
�
(8 )
u
n.
(9)
13
0 0
z u
(10 )
-f---..:-
13
Have compu ters
chang ed the educa t i on r equi r emen t s
of people y ou
supervise?
14
Do the peopl e work- Yes
i ng for y ou r equi re No
a knowl edg e of computer programmi ng?
Bl
B2
93
300
45
160
5
7
19
60
1
14
1
8
15
Do y ou hav e any
compu t er trained
specia l i s t s i n the
depar tment?
Y es
No
B3
B4
135
265
57
1 51
7
2
20
57
1
14
0
11
21
Wha t kind o f
cours es hav e y ou
taken or do you
intend to take on
comput ers?
Rl
None
Opera ti on R2
Int r a duct ' n R3
81
35
0
11
4
1
73
35
2
13
0
2
231
1 49
8
64
11
7
Q . 13 .
Managers for the mos t par t fel t that EDP ha s inc r eas ed
the education r equir ement s of th e per sonnel tha t t hey superv i s e .
Th is woul d s eem to indi ca t e tha t c ompu ter s hav e not t ended to r e place t h e r equi r ement o £ i nd i v i du a l
wor ker s
t o think an d ana ly z e
·
57
pr ob l ems .
Q
..
14 .
Mo s t manag er s do not r equi r e pers onnE!l working for them
to have a knowl edge of comput er pr ogrammin g .
This answer con ­
n e c t ed wi th the r esul ts in Q . 1 3 . woul d t end t o indica t e tha t the
comput e r was being us ed as a tool by the r esponder s .
: o. 15.
Mos t man ager s indi ca t ed tha t they ha d no computer train ed
specia l i s ts in th eir depar tmen t .
Q . 21 .
Thi s ques t i on appl ies to thi s func tion as wel l as to the
pr ev ious que s t ion of planning .
The high numb er of manag er s who
hav e t aken cour s es in comput er t echnol ogy cou l d indi ca t e tha t i t
mi ght b e a r equi rem en t of hi s par t i cul ar j ob .
Unfo r t una t el y
the r e i s n o s ubs tan t i a t ing evi denc e t o corroborate this s ta� e­
ment .
The per s onal interv i ews did no t br ing out any feel ing of
: thi s nature on the pa r t of the peop l e i n t erviewed .
OrQani zing- - Ques t i ons
funct i on .
Q . 12 .
( 12 ) and (24 ) appl ied to th i s
Th e r esu l t s a r e shown in TABLE 5 .
Manag ers pr edomina tely indica ted tha t ther e had b een no
chang e in the numb er of peopl e tha t they supervi s e .
Q . 24 .
Al l ca t egor i es of contact in this ques t i on indicated tha t
for the mos t par t managers di d not have a cha ng e in t he fr equency
: of contact wi th per s onnel wi thin the company .
Howev er , wher e a
chang e ha s occur r ed it was to increas e the fr equency of contact
wi th a l l c a t egories of per s onne l .
F r om the s e par t i cu l ar questi ons i t di d n o t appear tha t
the impac t on the organi zati on func t i on >lias ex tens ive .
Dir e c t ing - -Quest ions ( 12 ) ,
to the func tion of di r ec t i on .
( 24 ) ,
( 27 ) , and (28 ) per tain
Qu e s t i on s ( 12 ) an d ( 2 4 ) a r e
58
tabulated in TABLE 5 ; however , questio � s (27 ) and (28 ) required a
fair degree of' wr i t t en answers , and the data which was gathered
was insufficient in quant i ty in that only a very f'ew responders
bothered to answer thes e ques tions .
. not show any s ignifi can t trends .
Those f'ew that answered di d
Th e t i t l es of' repor ts were
varied and impossib l e to correlate to one another .
TABLE 5
Ques t i ons Per taining to Organization and Direc tion
Producti on Control
Manag ers only
.
.
r::
0
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(/)
Ql
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&�
(1 )
Questi on
and
Cat egory
Answer
(2 )
(3 )
Ql
"d .
0 0
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(/)
1-1
Ql
�
,...; (/)
��
(4 ) ( 5 )
(/)
1-1
Ql
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ro
,...; r::
,...; ro
c:t: :2:
(6 )
(/)
.j->
��
,...; Ql
,...; (/)
c:t: ::s
(7 )
0\
.j->
.j-> 0
�Ql � es
...-l c..{j
Ul
.j-> u
c:t: o..
(8 )
Ql
(/)
::s
r::
ro o..
.C:: Cl
.j-> U)
r::
•r-i
Ql
(/)
::s
&
Ul
(/)
1-1
Ql
.c::
.j->
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u
o..
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r::
ro
p,
s
0 0
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(9)
(10 )
-
12
24
Have comput ers
chang ed the numb er
of' peopl e which
you supervi se?
How has the com puter affected the
fr equency of' con tact with the
fol lowing :
Sub ordinat es
P eer s
Superiors
N/C
More
Less
L21 213
L22 88
L23 75
112
39
43
9
1
2
42
10
25
8
4
2
5
2
0
N/C
More
Less
N/C
Mor e
Less
N/C .
More
Less
Rl3
R l4
Rl5
Rl6
R l7
Rl8
102
59
19
97
70
11
92
74
16
6
3
1
47
24
8
43
29
6
36
33
9
9
1
0
8
1
1
8
2
0
3
0
1
3
1
0
4
0
0
186
113
43
182
130
25
Rl 9 1 6 9
R20 142
R21 34
4
5
1
8
2
0
59
Q . 12 .
According to th e l i t erature s tudy which was made , the
innova t i on o£ an EDP system could incr eas e the span o£ control o£
a given manager .
The answer s tha t we r e given t o this ques tion
sl:wul d have indicated that pr edominately mor e s ubordina tes were
supervi sed , hence changing the mode o:f di rection £rom superi or to
subordina te .
Mos t managers in dica ted tha t ther e was no change in
· the number o£ peopl e t hey ·supervis ed .
Q . 24 .
Thi s qu es t ion rela tes to dir ec ti on in that i t cou ld i ndi ­
ca te a change in the dir ecting t echnique .
I£ an extensive amount
o£ delega t i on were to b e sub s t i tu t ed £or di rect order giving ,
then the con tact wi th subordinates could be decr eas ed .
The s tudy
o£ the l i t eratur e indicated that this i s one change tha t could
occur wi th the introduct ion o£ EDP .
The answers to thi s qu es tion
�id not suppor t this hypothesis .
The answers to t hes e q uesti ons indicated that mos t
manager s thought the ir di r ecti on £unc ti ons were impacted to a
minimum .
This was s ubstanti a t ed by the previously menti oned
qu est ion numb er sixt een .
C<:m trol l ing - -Questions { 17 ) , { 1 8 ) , {24 ) , {27 ) and {28 )
wer e in r egard to thi s £unction .
The fol lowing tabl e number s ix
;presents the resul ts o£ thes e qu es tions .
Mos t manag er s indica ted tha t the fr equency o£ repor ts has
Q . 17 .
increas ed .
This tends t o suppor t the s tatements made by some
au thors which wer e pr esen t ed i n the analysi s of li t eratur e on EDP,
in tha t the pr edominan t us e of compu ter s today wa s to impr ov e on
exis ting t echniques of management .
could
be
to
incr eas e
One metho d of improvement
repor ting s o tha t decis ions made wer e done
i--
60
with mor e conf idence becau s e of incr eas ed da ta .
The answer s to
thi s qu es t i on cou ld also mean that supe rfluous data was now b eing .
g en er a ted .
TABLE 6
Answers P er ta i n ing t o the Manager ' s C on t r ol Funct i on
-
F:
·-
-
P roduc ti on Cont r ol
Manag ers only
.
.
s::
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Ques t i on
and
Ca t egory
Answer
(2 )
(3 )
(1 )
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Q)
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ro
r--1 r::
r--1 ro
-< :a:
1/)
+-'
P. o..
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+-'
+-' (.)
1/J t> O.,
ro <t: o
Q)
w
r-I c<!
Q)
+-' u !/)
<t: o.. ::1
r::
ro o..
..C: Q
+-> W
r::
•r-l
Q)
"0 .
0 0
u z
!/)
�
Q)
s:
r--1 !/)
r--1 r::
<t: <t:
(4 )
(5)
B20
B21
B22
2 8 1 146
3 0 15
63 32
8
2
2
62
6
9
6
1
6
1
0
4
(6 )
8�
r--1 Q)
r--1 !/)
<t: ;:1
(7 )
(8 )
1/) Q)
� !/)
Q) ;:1
..c:
+-> U
o o..
:>.
r::
ro
w P.
s
0 0
z u
(9)
(10)
�
17
How has th e c om pu t er v ar i ed t he
:frequency o:f
r epor t s?
Incr .
D eer .
N/C
18
How h a s t h e com pu t er var i ed th e
detail of r epor ts?
More
Les s
N/C
B23
B24
B25
311 166
33 13
3 1 14
11
1
0
70
6
2
9
1
3
1
0
3
24
How has the com pu ter aff ec t ed the
:fr equency of con tact with the ,
foll owing :
M or e
Less
N/C
Rl4
RlS
R l3
1 13 59
43 1 9
1 8 6 1 02
3
1
6
24
8
47
1
0
9
0
1
3
Mor e
Less
N/C
R l7
Rl8
R16
130
25
182
70
11
97
5
1
4
29
6
43
1
1
8
1
0
3
Mor e
Less
N/C
R20
R21
R19
1 42
34
169
74
16
92
2
0
8
33
9
36
2
0
8
0
0
4
Subordinates
Peer s
'
Super i ors
·
.
-----·---·
Q . 18 .
.
The ab i l i ty of th e compu t er t o ass imi la te l a r g e v o l umes
of dat a and to print i t
ou t
cou l d again be i nd ica ted by t h e fact
I
II
61
I
I
I
tha t most managers answer ed thi s ques tion wi th an indicat ion of
greater detail in repor ts .
To these manager�; i t could be that
If the data is per ti n�nt to the
more da ta means better cont r ol .
ques ti on at hand then this gr ea t er amount of da ta can mean mor e
: t imely con trol with the aforementio n. ed increa.s e in fr equency and
mor e accur a t e control wi th the incr e�s e in detail .
Appar ently
the compu ter is not b eing used t o -diges t th e data £irs t , and then
pr i n t ou t on ly wha t is per tinent t o the specific ques ti on a t
hand .
Q . 24.
Analysis i s s imi lar t o that for the dir ection func ti on .
Ques t ions (27 ) and (28 ) again wer e in the category wh er e
the answers r eceived were inadequa te in v olume to draw any con elus ions and al so were not well enough defined in the way in
: which the r esponders wr ote in their an swers , to correla te
resul ts .
Fur t h er Comment s to Answers to the
Writ e-In Ques tions
Ques tion Twenty-Nin e - -The var i e ty of answers to thi s
ques tion wer e t o o numer ous to categor iz e .
The r esponse here was
better than the wr i t e-in for other ques t i ons .
The answers r anged
from an elaborat ion of why the respon der answered a par ticular
checked qu es tion th e way he did , to an elaborate explana tion of
the enti r e EDP s y stem that hi s company was us ing .
In a number of
cas es , the answers indi cated that th e company the r espondents
wer e working for planned an expans ion in th e immedi ate futur e .
Qu es tions Tv;enty - Se�en
&
Tw enty- Eight R egar ding R epor t s - 1- -
62
I
i
As pr eviously s tated the answer s t o these que s t ions wer e not
spec if ic enough to draw any cor.r ela t i on , nor was the response
larg e .
Howev er , the few answers which wer e r eceiv ed · can b e
analyzed a s fol lows .
Neither t h e r epor ts which wer e pr epar ed
;personal ly or whi ch wer e analyz ed showed any indication of b eing
remarkably d iffer ent becaus e of the innova t i on of EDP .
What I
had hoped to find was tha t the us e of EDP had made a s ignificant
di fferenc e in the type of r epor ts that the indiv idua l manager
migh t be involved wit h .
No s uch dif fer enc e was found .
!
!l
!
!
!
CHAPTER V
R ESULTS OF PERSONAL INT ERVIEWS
Thi s chapt er wi ll r evi ew the techniques an d th e findings
of the personal intervi ews .
The obj ec tive was to explore i n
depth the conclusi ons drawn from th e questionnair es .
The ques -
tionnai re was ab le to g ive suppor t or denial to th e hypothesis .
It answer ed the ques tion of to wha t degree the manager thought
his job had b een affect ed by
EDP
, but i t di d not t ell why he
thought the way he did .
In addi tion to the for egoing r eas ons , s eman tic di ff er e·n tial can bias answers in the quest ionnair e one way or the o ther ;
e . g . , a manager who has had r ela tively l it tl e impact on his job
by EDP could answer th e ques t ion on planning impa ct wi th an
"extr eme " an swer and vice
y�,
a manag er wi th ex treme impact
could answer the same ques t i on , "sl ightly " .
This fac t was
poi n t ed out in Chap ter I wher e i t was menti oned that sample
ques ti onnai r es wer e answer ed by per sons per sonal ly acquaint ed
with the au thor .
have been .
It was known in advance what th e answer s should
In a few cas es ther e was a differ ence .
Choi c e of In tervi ewees - -Manag er s were chos en for inter view consi der ing the fol lowing factors .
1.
A personal knowl edge on the author ' s pa rt , regarding the job ,
and how the comput er aff ec ted that pa rticul ar individual was
63
l.
'
[
64
consider ed desi rable .
2.
A diver s ification of depar tmental responsibi l i ty was needed
b ecause the ques tionnai re had pr edominatel y b•�en answer ed by per sonnel who were in some way connected wi th produc tion and inv en . tory con trol . (Most wer e memb ers of American Production and In ; ventory Cont rol Society . )
3.
.
Int ervi ewees wer e chos en for their r anging degr ee of compu ter
us age by thei r part i c ular depa rtmen t .
4.
For the mos t p ar t int erv iewees wer e from firms engaged in the
aerospace indus try .
A Typical Int ervi ew Session - - Int ervi ew s essions took from
one -ha lf to one hour each and fol lowed fai rly clos ely thi s o�t line :
1 .
A brief expl ana ti on was given on the purpos e of the i n t er -
v i ew .
In par ticul ar i t was s tres s ed that the obj ec tive of the
interview was to ob tain details of EDP impact on the five bas i c
managerial functions of planning , s taffing , or gani zing , dir ecting
and control ling .
2.
At this point a discus si on ensued r egarding the defini tions
of the terms .
The interviewees wer e told defini t i on in accor d-
ance with those out l ined in Chapter I .
3.
If a ques tionnai r e
had n o t b e�m
fi l l ed out , he was asked to
take a few minu t es to do i t now .
4.
The fir s t ques t ion and discuss ion was always " In what way has
the introdu ction of a compu t er affect ed your job as a manager? "
The answer r eceiv ed
was
int ended t o es tabl ish
wha t
the general
feel ing of the int ervi ewee was r egardi ng th e impa ct of EDP on
his
65
j ob , w i thout a cross d is cus s i on on th e i n t ervi ewer 1 s par t .
This
was t o minimi z e a poss ibi l i ty of bi as by th e i n t ervi ewer .
5.
Each func t i on was now di s cu s s ed s epar a t el y .
Li t eratur e r e -
s earch i n t o EDP impa c t on mana g er s i nd i ca t ed wha t certai n impacts
: shou l d b e (not her etofo r e d i s cus s ed ) , and qu es t i ons under each
_ ca t egory wer e asked whi ch s houl d have i nd i ca ted wheth er the par ·
ti cul ar i n t er v i ewee _ wa s impa c t ed in th e way t he l i t eratur e said
he · should hav e b een .
In · each ca t eg ory t he i n terv i ewee was · alway s
ask ed h i s general feel ing on EDP impac t on t h at specif i c fun c t i on
f i r s t and a l l owed to fu l ly explain his point b efor e going i n t o
t h e detai l qu es ti ons .
He was ask ed to elabora t e o n why he
answer ed the ques t i onnair e t he way h e di d ; i . e . , no impact ,
s l ightly or ext r emely .
A.
I
!.
I
I
I
I
I
P lanning .
(1 )
Do y ou or others us e the c ompu t er t o simul ate
or model c hang es t o production ( or ot her si tua t ions dependi ng on
the indiv i dua l ) ?
(2 )
Is t he c omput er us ed t o s olv e pr obl ems or per -
form s tudi es tha t pri or t o i t s avai l abi l i ty wer e too compl ex or
expensiv e to accompl i sh?
B.
I
St affi n g .
(1 )
Hav e you had t o chang e your per s onal tal en t s
or educa ti on in order to ma in tain y our presen t posi t ion?
(2 )
Do you have t o know how t o h i r e diff er en t
(3 )
Wha t ar e the detai l changes in the s taff whi ch
talents?
you n ow hav e as opposed to befor e EDP ?
I
l
f·
--
66
C.
Or gani zing .
{1 )
Do you now supervi se the same numb er of i:rnme -
dia t e subor dinates as b efor e EDP?
{2 )
Why did your departmen t or gani zation change
i with EDP intr oducti on?
D.
Dir ect ing .
{1 )
Ar e you now making deci s ions of more impor t -
ance or gr eat er magni tude than before the introduct ion of EDP ;
e . g . , do you have more author i ty1
{2 )
Do you now del egate mor e au thori ty t o your
(3 )
Do you or y our subordinates now r eact to r e -
subordina t es?
por ts generated by a compu t er wh er e befor e these acti ons wer e the
r esul t of over t direct ion from an individual ?
E.
Controlling .
{1 )
Is the accuracy of th e · informa tion bett er than
{2 )
Does i t take you mor e or l ess time to analyze
{3 )
Does i t t ake you mor e or l es s time to make a
b efor e EDP ?
r epor ts now?
deci s ion now than befor e?
{4 )
Do you hav e mor e information than b efore and
i s i t more timely?
In documenti ng the answer s to ques t ions asked , the int er v i ewee ' s answer was firs t r epeated in his own words to be sur e
tha t what the in terviewee said was cl ear.ly understood .
i
I.
67
Resu l t s or the Int ervi ews
General Ques t i on in Regard to EDP Imp,3.c t - - Invar iably the
per sons int erv i ewed s eemed t o reel tha t th ey wer e not a good s ub ; j ect i n t ha t their activ i ty did not ma.ke enough us e o r EDP .
In
a l l cas es th e depa r tment in whic h they worked actua l l y u s ed an
EDP
s ys t em in s ome way for· con t r o l or as a t ool or th e i r t rade .
Al l int ervi ewees except one had a fa i r ly good wo rking know l edge
of the compu t er and in mos t cas es were f ami l i ar wi th sys t ems that
o th er compa n i es h ad us ed t ha t wer e mor e s oph i s t icat e,d than thei r
own .
They al l fel t that the comput er c oul d do mor e for t h em t han
i t was .
In ab out ha l£ the cas es ther e wer e plans for company
expans i on of the usage of EDP .
In one c a s e t her e was a new sys t em in effect f or only two
mon th s .
I t was in the r ealm of a t o tal con trol s ys t em and t h e
indi v i dual s t r es s ed the mul t i tude o£ problems t hat had occur r ed
I
-·
wi t h per s onne l r es i s t ance to the compu t er .
This l as t cas e was a
commercia l app l i ca tion i n the l ar g es t ins t i tu t i ona l rood dis t r i bu t i on bu s iness i n the Sou thern Cal if or n ia ar ea .
. t ime di s cus s ing the deta i l s o£ the r es i s t ance .
We spen t some
I t became appar -
: ent that t h e indo c t r i n a t ion for a l l pers onnel had b een a minimum .
'
I
The help r equi r ed t o oper a t e t h e comput er a nd r un th e sy s t em wer e
a l l n ew hi r es wi th a mi nimum numb er or th e old er empl oye es of the
company being us ed .
A sho rt bri efing of the management pers onnel
was a l l tha t had b een done w i th r espect to indo c t r ina t io n .
driver s ' rou tes had b een chang ed wi th l i t t l e explanat i on .
n ow r equi r ed
to
Truck
I t is
us e numb e r s for order i ng by th e s al e smen ins t ead
r-
68
of t h eir pr ev i ous t echnique of wr i t i ng out the detai l s of the
i t ems t ha t their cus tome r s want ed .
iden t ifi ed b y numb er s .
The cus t omers wer e als o
The sal esmen used to spend two an d one-
ha lf hou r s a day s ummari z ing and w r i ting orders .
• done aut oma ti c a l ly .
Thi s
l.
• c•
_,
now
It now a l l ow s them mor e time t o make cal l s
. and can sub s t an t ia l l y in cr ea s e th e ir income .
No pena l ty was
impos ed , nor was ther e any- change in t er r i t ory .
Howev er : du e t o
t h e t r emendous numb er o f mi s t akes i n or ders and d el i v eri E!S
because of incor r ec t l y wri t t en order s , much troub l e has dev el oped.
The pr es ident of the compa ny f eels t hey should take thei r l oss
and for g et the v en tur e , bu t l ower l ev el execu tiv e management is
ins i s t i ng that EDP is neces s a r y in order t o cope w i t h pr oblems
t hat wil l a r i s e due t o a planned overal l t er r i t or ial bus i ness
· expans i on .
Th i s i ns tanc e was pr es ent·ed as a contras t t o the LOCS
cas e where an ext ens i v e s el l i ng program was done on the pers onnel
in th e bu s i ness pr i o r to the actual i n t ro duc ti on of the sy s t em .
P lanning- -Al l bu t one of t he pers ons inter v i ewed had
depar tmen t s whi ch suppl i ed i nputs 'on occas ion to PERT programs .
However , they di d no t us e th e output of t he programs for a con trol
tool af t erward .
In t h es e c ompani es i t appar ently was a contrac -
' tua l r equi rement t o use PER T , bu t a l l departments did n o t us e i t
•
as a working t ool .
In on e c ompany wh er e PERT was pu t on the com -
put e r t h e manag er was us i ng i t f or cont r ol .
However , h e was
using a hand upda t ed c har t r a t her t han the compu t er i zed v er sion .
Thi s par t i cular manag er was t h e mos t knowl edgab l e abou t compu t er s
in t ha t he had b een a c omput er c i r cui t des igner prior to gaining
his pr esent pos i t i o n .
He was thoroughly fam i l iar vr.i. th pr ogramming
I
I
I
t
I
69
and differ ent usage of compu ter s .
the
ED P
Hi s pr imary concern was tha t
syst ems the company was using wer e adequate .
If th e
sys tems were changed he felt that EDP would b e a very us eful tool
for the manager but at the pr es ent time i t was misus ed .
The com-
• pany that he worked for had s ev eral thousand employees and us ed
the computer ext ensiv ely in all departmen ts in thei r day - to-day
activ i ties .
.
This man ' s at ti tude typifi es the feel ing of young ,
well educated manag ers who , becaus e of their knowl edge of wha t
can b e , are diss atisfied with the EDP s upport ed bus i n ess sys t ems
that their l es s er informed superiors hav e fois ted on them .
In two cas es the computer had b een used to solve complex
prob lems that , if i t had not b een availabl e , would not hav e b een
accompli shed .
In a cas e wher e the manager was responsible f o�
company long range planning and for ecas ting he had us ed the com pu t er to deriv e nomographs from some fairly compl ex formula s o
tha t the for ecas ting functi on could b e per form ed mor e rapidly by
hand .
The nomographs wer e us ed in li eu of using the compu ter to
perform thes e cal culat ions on a day - to -day bas is .
•
Staffing- -Wi t h only one exc eption th e managers in ter v i ewed had acquain ted and train ed thems elv es in the use of com; puter sys t ems and in mos t cas es had tak en cour s es on the subj ect .
· None of them fel t t ha t they had p er sonal ly appl ied their knowThe ins tal la tion of the EDP sys t ems in us e was per formed
ledge .
by a s ervice department of some sor t .
·
The talents whi ch they had to hir e had not changed , and
there was no chang e in the s taffing of their or gan izat ions .
It
was ment ioned tha t they fel t other depar tme nts had ch anged , but
70
that they had not .
Organiz�-.!!Q- -The opi ni on of the managers interviewed was
that they thought tha t the comput er was supposed to decrease the
number of personnel under th eir dir ection .
They beli eved a mor e
: effic ient operation wou ld r edu ce the number of per sonnel .
This
• i s in contras t to the li tera tur e whi ch said th at if a compu ter
'
made a manag erial funct ion mor e effi ci ent , i t should decr ease the
ratio of manager s t o workers .
wer e mildly surpr i s ed .
When I men t i oned thi s fact , mos t
Obvi ou sly they had not cons id er ed a r e-
duct i on in their own numb er .
In one ins tanc e mor e pers onne l wer e added , but as a
resul t of the computer , rather than due to a reduction in the
numb er of manager s .
Such pers onnel could gather mor e data for
: the compu ter to process .
In thi s ins tance th ere was no r eorgani-
zation of funct ions .
Directin9,- - In g en eral there was no change in the impor t anc e of decis ions .
In one instan c e , ,however , wher e compu ter
derived s umma ry r epor ts wer e a major s our ce of ac t iv i ty for the
depar tment , the manag er had s et up a sys t em tha t allowed the
· indiv iduals t o r eact direc tly from the r epor ts wi thout wai ting
·
for his dir ection . In thi s cas e i t was f el t that a defini t e
· downward del ega t ion of authori ty had occur r ed .
In thi s manager ' s
opinion , his deci s i ons had not changed in importance .
Con trollin.2_- -As could b e predi c t ed from the qu es ti onnair e
sur vey , the managers f el t that this functi on had been impacted to
the grea t es t ex tent .
Al l were affec ted by the accoun ting pro-
cedur es of th ei r companies hav ing b een computer i z ed in the
71
unknown dis tant pas t .
The accoun ting sys t em was s tabl e ; i t was
accepted by empl oyees and in no instance was giving th em any
trouble .
Her e the similarity of con trol impac t on th e managers
in t erviewed , ended .
A pr oduction cont rol manag er in a fi rm wi th ov er 1200
dir ect line workers fel t that the ope rati on was too smal l to
benefi t from a highly compu ter i z ed produ ction control syst em .
Th eir norma l day - t o -day tracking of s tatus was done entirely by
hand by fl oor per s onnel .
The plan t was compact and there was
only a l imit ed numb er of places to look for work in pr oc ess .
Thi s firm di d have a highly compu terized ma terial control sy stem .
Wh en mat erial was back or dered by product ion con trol they made
, out a compu ter r epor t on thi s aspect of thei r job .
In addi t ion
they did u s e the compu t er t o l i s t behind s chedule jobs .
Th er e
were plans f or futur e expans ion of EDP in the works , but nothing
very ext ens iv e .
I t was fel t that the long l i s ts of tab runs wer e
not too us eful becaus e they di d not pinpoint per t i nent facts
which should high l i gh t probl ems .
This parti cul ar manager did
feel that he was qui te knowledgeabl e r egarding computer i z ed
sys t ems but indica ted tha t he had nev er taken any formal education in th e fi eld .
Two cas es us ed budg etary r epor ts from accoun ting for
di rect control of their oper at ions .
The other s felt they would
like to have repor ts of t hi s na tu re for their us e .
On e r eceiv ed
summary budg et r epor ts on a monthly bas i s but fel t that he could
do a bet t er j ob of cont rol ling if the r eports wer e del iv er ed to
him v,·e ekly .
H2
also receiv ed weekly deta il tab lis ting of his
I
t
I
f
72
j obs but the r epor ts were too di fficult to use .
Al l fel t that the information was , in .g eneral , mor e
accur a t e .
Repor ts t ha t wer e similar to r epor ts they us ed to
receiv e wer e easier to analyz e .
Some of the newer l ong l i s ts on
tab runs wer e mor e difficul t to analyz e .
Decis ions wer e made
mor e rapidly and wi th mor e confi dence when they wer e bas ed on
compu ter n�por ts .
The EDP information was in great er detai l and
i t was more t imely wi th on ly on e exception .
One of the comments made during the in terv iews i �; worth
In one ins tance where different depar tmen ts wer e re-
s tres sing .
qui r ed to en ter data into the comput er for process ing and
even tual us e by other depar tmen ts , an atti tude had devel oped
that , once the comput er was fed , the job was done .
Ther e had
b een personal contact pr evious ly between diff er en t depar tmental
pers onnel , prior to comput er usag e , - tha t had resul t ed in mutual
sympathy
f or
each others ' pr oblems ; now there was the impersonal
barrier of an EDP sys t em .
Once one department ' s peopl e had
enter ed the data they did not car e in t he l eas t how it was ev.entually us ed .
occur r ed , and
When erroneous inputs were made no human feedback
m�y probl ems whi ch prev iously had b een taken care
of on the wo rking l ev el wer e now in the hands of depar tm en t
manag ers becau s e peopl e no long er ass ociated wit h each other and
did not kn ow how to resolv e problems among th ems elv es .
This was
an int er es t ing managerial prob lem for whi ch no solution had yet
been found .
Int ervi ewees - -Al l in t erviewees were manag er s of varying
degr ees .
Th ey"
were
from fiv e
d i f fer e nt
compan ies .
The
73
depar tments whi ch they r epr esen ted were :
Qua l i ty Con trol ,
..
Qual i ty Engineer ing , Sa l es , Program Manag ement , Production Con trol , Proj ect Eng i neering , P lanning and Control .
I
I
i
CHAPTER V I
SUMM ARY AND CONCLUS IONS
Summary- -As s ta t ed in Chapter I , a fou r -b arr eled appr oach
was to be us ed to g ain support or lack of suppor t for tt-. e
hypo th e s i s .
Chapt er s two , thr ee , four , and five hav e each t aken
one of the approaches , pr es en t ed th e f i ndings and then ana lyzed
the r esul t s of th os e f i ndings .
A s t a t emen t can b e made t ha t the
hypo thesis as s ta t ed in Chap t er One ha s b een suppor t ed .
The
impor tant point of · t his th esi s , howev er , was to determine if
poss ib l e the degr ee to which the manager thought his j ob had
b e en aff ected , an d al s o to det erm ine i n wha t way it was affec t ed .
In addi t ion , in the next ch apt er s ome pr edi ctions as to poss ibl e
futur e impact on the manager ' s j ob w i l l b e a t t empt ed .
Fo l l owing
ar e conclu s i ons drawn from the inv es ti g a t i ons .
F i r s t Conclus ion - - The only appr oach whi c h gav e num er i cal
suppor t to an obj ective s ta temen t of managerial impa c t was the
que s t i onnai r e answer s .
F r om t h e r es ul t s obtained to the answer
to que s t ion s ix t een i t can be surmis ed that t h e fiv e basic func ti ons of a manag er hav e been aff ec t ed by EDP i n des cending or der
as l i s t ed :
1.
Cont r o l ling
2.
P lanning
3.
D i r ec t i ng
74
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4.
Organizing
5.
Staffi ng
The ot her three chapt er s di d not giv e� an indic at ion of
or der except in a general way .
In Chap t er Two the informa t i on
pr esented s eemed to indicate t hat the planning func t ion had been
af'fec t ed the mos t .
In the LOCS case
spen t pl anning t he ev entual sys t em .
a
g r eat deal of time was
In the LOCS cas e , though ,
the obj ectiv e seemed t o b e to gain b e t t er con trol of the bus iness.
Th e pers onal in tervi ews 'brought out the fact tha t in th e opi ni on
of th e people interv iewed the con trol function was affec t ed the
greates t .
From the for egoing i t is s een that the analys es of the
other thr ee appr oaches tended to suppor t the findin gs of the
ques tionnair e in tha t ei t her th e Cont r ol l ing or Pl anning func t ion
of the manag er had b een affect ed to the gr eates t extent , although .
not necessar ily in th e same order as l is t ed .
Th er e was only s l i ght indicat ion in the other thr ee
I
approaches on th e order of impact of th e other thr ee manageri al
I ,
functi ons .
The per sonal int erv i ews did indi cate tha t the managers
I
interv iewed had s een no impact on thei r own s taffing funct:lon at
all , but th ey did b e li eve tha t other depar tments had b een
,affect ed .
Second Conclu sion - -By again r eferr ing to the ques tion naire ans wers , i t can b e concluded t hat mos t manag ers wh o worked
in departments that us e EDP f el t tha t their j ob had been affec ted
to a gr eater extent than those manag er s that are working in
compan ies wher e other depar tments ar e the users of EDP .
differ en ce
wo.s
The
most not iceabl e in the cont roll ing func t ion and to
f- ·
76
a l es s er degr ee i n th e planning £� nc tion .
Dir ect ing , or gani zin g ,
and s taffing showed almos t n o differ ence .
The accoun ting departmen t was the heav i es t user o£ EDP in
mos t comp<:,n ies , and in only one cas e where EDP was used in pr o. duct ion control did the account ing depar tment not use EDP .
Although not brought ou t by the ana lys is pr es ent ed in the appen dix on the resul ts o£ the s urvey , an inspect ion o£ the c:: ues ti on nai r es indicated that manager s £or the most par t did not state
tha t their depar tment was a us er o£
E DP
i£ they only supplied
informa tion to the accoun ting department .
Thi s would pos sibly
explain why manag ers , in s ome cas es , felt tha t th eir j ob had been
affected by
EDP
ev en though they indi cat ed that their department
was not a us er .
Final Conclus 1on - -Ther e ar e perhaps many conc lus i ons tha t
can be drawn from analyzing the deta ils o£ the £our appr oach es to
the suppor t o£ the hypothesi s .
However , as s tated in the summary
at the beginning o£ th i s chapter , the purpos e was to determin e
the degr ee of impact and th e way in which the manager ' s j ob had
been affected .
i
The f ir s t two conclusions wer e ones o£ degr ee .
In trying t o summari ze in wha t way the manager ' s j ob has
been affected for a conclus ion , i t i s fel t tha t quotes £rom two
· of the readings would sum.-na rize a f ina l conclus ion .
Foxwor th
s ta t es in his book that : ' � robably the mos t impor tan t conclus ion
reached is that comput ers hav e not had a revolutionary impact on
manageme�t pr oces s es . nl The emphasis her e should be on the wo rd
l James
Barber
Foxwor th ,
op .
ci t . ,
p.
2.
i
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.
77
r ev o l u t i onary .
Thi s conclus i o n i s fur ther suppor t ed by D i eb o l d
i n h i s 1 964 ar t i c l e i n whi ch h e s tates , 1'Al though comput ers
arr iv ed i n the 1 950 ' s , ex ecu t ives a r e doing l i t tl e mor e w i th au to-
I
i
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I
. ma t i c data pr o ces s i ng than addi ng speed and (�conomy to t asks p er ­
. formed wi t h ear l i er equipmen t . ul
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l
John Di ebo ld , op . ci t . , p . 62 .
CHAPTER VII
AN EYE TO THE FUTUR E
"Th e (Digi tal ) Comput er a r r i v ed. i n th e 1 950 ' s . "1
y ears l at er i t was h e r a l ded :
11
•
•
Seven
the mos t impor tan t dev el op -
•
ment tha t has occur r ed i n bus iness manag emen t i s the adv en t of
the el ec t r on i c digi tal compu ter . " 2
Pr ev i ous men t ion in t h i s
thesi s has poin ted ou t t h e r a t e a t whi ch th e compu t er bus i n ess
is expanding .
How �ver , in the las t chap ter the conclus ion
poi n t ed up the fact t ha t the usage of compu t er s s o far has been
. t o improv e on t echniques a nd rapi di ty· of r epor ting .
The Computer Advan ta25:.- -Al i manag ement has r eal i zed s o
far i s tha t compu t er s can d o exis ting j obs r apidly .
advan tage of a comput er ov er the human is speed . 3
example wi l l b e us ed to i l lus trate t hi s .
The ma in
Th e fol l owing
The comparativ e t ime
t o mul t iply two , t en - digi t numb er s togeth er one thous and diff er ent t imes by diff er ent t echniqu es i s :
1
D i ebol d , op. ci t . , p . 62 .
2
put ers ,
wi l li am D . Bel l , A Managemen t Gu�de to Electroni c Com ­
(New York : McGraw - Hi l l Book Company , Inc . , 1 957 ) , p . 1 .
3
w . J . Ecker t and R eb ecca Jon es , Fas ter , Fas t er (New
York :. McG r aw-Hi l l Book Company , Inc . , 1 955 ) , p . 2 .
78
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II
79
I
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a ) By hand wi th a penci l and paper .
b ) By aid of a desk cal culator .
c ) By an el ectr o-mechanical cal cula tor
wi th automa tic r ead and wri te .
d ) By a smal l el ectrical cal cu lator .
e ) By a dig i tal compu t er .
ho'!ir
1 minute
1
1 s econd
:�1
Research for thi s paper uncov er ed many cl aims of the
future chang es that the comput er was going to make on business ,
and claims about i ts capabi l i ty of replac ing humans in cer tain
types of j obs .
futur e .
For the mos t par t these chang es are s t il l in the
This clos ing chapter wi l l deal with thes e pr edi cti ons .
Educat i on- -Befor e prognos ti cation of the fu tur e is
a t t empted a word shoul d be s aid r egar di ng wha t thes e pr edictors
are s ay ing about the educational r equir emen ts for tomorrow ' s
. managers .
I t • mus t be assumed tha t i t i s no t the i n t ention of
' col leges to tr ain manager s for entry int o a par t icular indus try .
A col lege gradua te shoul d b e capabl e of entering i n t o bas ic
manag ement in any field of end eavor .
Most of the au thors whi ch
were read assumed that tomor row ' s ma-nager wi ll be a col lege
graduat e , trained in the basic mana ger ial skil ls .
Tomor row ' s
potential manager should not en ter into a vocati onal ly ori en t ed
program .
This s houl d b e r es erved for th os e men who int end t o
: en ter the ranks as engineer s , ma thematici ans , pper ations r e­
s earchers , etc .
1
ijl
i
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'II,'
1 week
1 day
Accor ding to Mas on W . Gr oss , 2 President of
Ibid . ' p . 40 .
2
Mason W . Gros s , "The R ol e of Col l eges in the Devel op­
men t of Futur e Manag er s , " Mee ting Today ��espons ib i l i ty for
Tomor row ' s Manag er s , Indu strial Rela tions Center , Bul l e tin No . 35
( Los Ang el es :·c-a1i-£o rn ia Ins t i t ut e of T echn o l ogy , 1 964 ) , p . 20 .
; :J
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80
col leges
. mu s t not
devis e a
cur r i cu lum
for manag er s by .
gu<� s s i ng now wha t
kinds of facts o r ski l l s manager s might n eed f i f t een
y �ars from now .
Thes e manag er ial ly t rained s tuden ts would
almos t c er tainly j oi n t he t echnol og ical ly unempl oyab l e
s ooner o r later .
•
•
•
; Thi s
. •
•
•
•
tr end of the t echnol ogi cal ly unempl oyab le manag er s appears
to be s ta r t ing al r eady .
management tasks we
•
Ther efor e ,
.
•
a l r eady in manag ement . " !
"to dis charg e tomor row ' s
wi l l n e ed advanc ed educa t i on for peopl e
In Dr . Couger ' s speech he men t i oned
tha t two - thirds of his cl a s s a r e engineer s , older than himsel f
( 36 ) , who ar e going back t o s chool t o train thems el v es t o manag e
in this era . 2
s i z ed .
The role of the univ er s i ty cannot be ov er empha-
Lawr enc e A . Appl ey , Pr esi d en t of the Am eri c an M anagem ent
A ssoci a t i on , h as s ta t ed , "The educational pr ocess is for the .
purpos e of i nfluencing h�man ac t i on .
Th e b et t er the informat ion , '
expe r i ence , and thou ght , the b e t t er the judgme nt and the act ion
r esul t ing ther efrom . " 3
enough .
A col l ege degr ee by i t s elf wi l l not b e
Tomorr ow ' s manag er wi l l hav e t o cont inue h i s educa t i on
to keep abr eas t of his par ti cular t echn i cal f ield of managem ent .
1
2
3
Drucker , op. ci�. , p . 377 .
Coug er , op . c i t . , p . 9 5 .
La wr ence A . Appl ey , "Th e Futur e C annot b e Left to
Chanc e , " M eeting Today ' s R espo!ls ibi l i ty for Tomorr ow ' s Man ager s ,
Indu s t r ial Rel a t i ons Cent er , Bul l etin No . 3 5 {Los Angel es :
Ca l i for nia Ins t i tu te of Technol ogy , 1 9 64 ) , p . 49 .
w
f
Jl,
81
The Fut u r e
Man -Machine R elati onships - -The heavily compu t er i z ed
bus iness en terpr ise of the fu tur e indica tes to some peopl e tha t
the "only place for man in manag ement is at the higher l ev el s . ir l
Thi s is s omewhat borne ou t by the pr eviou s ly (Chapt er I ) di s · cus s ed tr ends toward redu � tion i n quant i ty of middle managers .
These argum ents cent er ar ound the concept that data proces s i ng
should not be interfered wi th by the human mind .
On the other hand th er e are arguments against the foregoing concept .
11Man i s a remarkable machine ,
cos ting too much in upkeep per hour ,
rr2
. not r eal ly
Man has phys ical
mob i li ty , and can do phys ical work in conjunction wi th pr oc esses .
He is al so cap ab l e of visual recogniti on and analysi s of pr eviously unhea�d of problems wi th his reasoning brain .
On the
o ther hand , da ta s t orage and mental compu.tations ar e done wi th
compar ative sl own ess and gr eat inher�nt error when compar ed to a
computer .
The r esult wi l l be a divi sion of tasks , wi th man and
machine each ass i gned to perform that function for whi ch each i s
bes t sui ted .
1 simon Ramo , "The Impa ct of Sci entific and Technolog ical
Advances on Tomorrow ' s Managers , " Meej;ing Today ' s Respons ibili ties
for Tomor row ' s M anag er s , Indus trial R el ations C enter , Bul l etin
No . 35 (Los Angel es : Cal ifornia Ins titute of Technol ogy , 1 964 ) ,
p. 8 -11 .
2
Ibid . ,
p.
10.
;
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82
Th e r esul t of these obs erva tions is tha t a man ­
machine partner ship , wi th the man pr operly as s i gned t o
tha t par t o f t h e t otal task wh ich i s s ui t ed to h i s
peculiar combinat ion o f b r ain and s en s es , an d arms an d
l egs , and the mach ine taking car e of thos e t asks for
which i t is b es t adap t ed . !
: This r elat ionship wi l l not b e s ta t i c .
I t wi l l chang e with t ime
as machi ne t echnol ogy pr ogres s es .
On Line Sys t ems - - I t ha s b een pr edi c t ed tha t the g r ea t e s t
change y e t to com e wi l l b e t h e dynamic integration of comput e r s
into the manufactur ing o r other bu s iness pr oces s .
a
"
•
There wi l l be
total depa r tu r e from t oday ' s comput er i z ed tab run . " 2
•
A r ecent sympos ium regar ding on - li n e compu ta t ion had s even
hun dr ed a t t endees .
Wal t er F . Bauer , P r e s i dent of Informa tics ,
Inc . , in a speech a t this sympo sium , s ummari zed the for ecas ts · for
� on l in e compu tat i on as fol lows : "On line compu ting i s today one
perc en t of al l . computa ti on ,
In fiv e year s i t w i l l b e f ifty per -
c ent , and in ten year s i t wi ll b e ninety per cent of al l comput er
activ i ty . n 3
Wh en this er a ar r iv es ques ti ons wi ll b e a s ked by the
pushing of bu t t ons or ev en s impl er. means .
Aft er the or i g i nal
inquiry the machine wi l l sugg es t fur ther ques t i ons that it could
answer r egardi n g t he or iginal s ubj ect .
Th e on - l ine sys t ems ar e br oken down in to six cat egor i es :
1
Ibid . ' p . 1 1 .
2
D i ebol d , op . ci t . , p . 64 .
3
Rex Pay , "On -Line Compu ting Dominanc e F o r es een , "
Mi s s i l es arid R ock ets , Vol . 1 6 , No . 9 , March 1 , 1 965 (New York :
Am eri can Avia t ion Pub l i cat i on , Inc . , 1 9 65 ) , p . 32 - 34 .
83
1.
Process con trol .
2.
Special ta:;,k mach ines .
3.
On- line pr .::>g rammi ng .
·.
: 4.
On -line problem s olv ing .
; s.
Inqui ry (into s ta tus , or other applicabl e informa ti on ) .
6.
On -l ine ins trumenta ti on , t es ting , etc .
Thi s l i s t encompas s es al l thE? functi ons that ar e perfor med on line including as sis tance in the ac tual manufactur e of the pr oduct i ts elf .
Organizati ona l Int errelati onships - -During th e 1 965
American Soc i ety fo r Qual i ty Control Configur ati on Manag emen t
. Sympos ium , on e of the speakers r elated an in teres ting fact . 1
It
was a requirement for his company to supply de tai led informa tion
! regarding the exact manufac tur ing history of ev ery detail par t
tha t was t o b e used in a manned orbi ting satel li t e .
The purpos e
of this informa tion was t o help in troubl e diagnos ing if a fail ure shoul d ev er occur .
One imag ine� the l i t er ally tons of paper
requir ed to docum ent this type of informat ion .
Once documen t ed ,
the storing , cataloging and indexing would b e an equa lly
form idabl e task .
: the compu t er .
To solve this problem the contractor turned t o
The manufac turi ng informat ion r equir ed dur ing the
build cycle was totally computer i z ed for control purpos es .
far nothing is unique in thi s anecdot e .
1
So
Howev er , the v endor in
This informa tion was r elated by one of the speak er s at
the Augus t 20, 1 9 65 Wes t Coas t Configura t i on Management Sym ­
pos i um , in r espons e t o
impromptu ques tion from the floor .
an
84
thi s cas e convinced his cus tomer , the U . S . Gov ernment , to pu t
his informa t ion requi rements on a tape in a compu ter language
which was common to both thei r comput ers .
Thi s not only incl uded
the request for the i nforma tion in the mann er in which the government wanted i t but al so included the t erms of the pur chas e order
and the bi l l i ng informa ti �n .
The vendor ' s comput er then put the
requi red informa tion on another tape , and requested payment of
the gov ernmen t in th e pr ocess .
This s econd bit of taped informa-
tion was then put in to the governmen t ' s comput er for s torage for
On e
future use and automatical ly a check reques t was made ou t .
compu t er was l i t eral ly talking to another .
Wi th the fac t wel l known about the mountains of paper r equi red t o run business es today , th is i s r eal ly a r emarkable case .
No paper at all was r equired to perform th is transact ion .
Thi s
eliminat i on o f paperwork b y l inking . comput er to compu t er to per form informa tion transfer has been heral ded by many au thors .
"P ieces of paper wi l l be out of date as ac tiv e par t icipants .
Paper r ecords wi l l be for later con templation only , not for on ­
l ine control . " 1
Money will not be transferred by check as today .
Comput ers wil l do i t for us .
Dr . Jos eph McCloskey , who is i n
charg e o f the P lanning and Devel opment Department for the
Security Fir st National Bank , Los Angeles , California , also
emphasi z ed thi s el iminati on of paper work in a speech b efore the
Wes t ern Sys t��s Confer ence i n 1 966 , by saying :
1
Ramo , op . ci t . , p . 9 .
85
It
is n ow easy
t o vi sua l i z e the day when we can
r ev er s e t he f l oo d of paperwor k tha t
i s maki ng
cu l t
our r es p ec t iv e
the tas k of k e epi ng
!
f i el ds of i n t er es t .
ab r eas t
of
so
d i ffi ­
; 'I
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, I
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:i
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A l r eady we ar e b ehind i n defi n i ng t h 2 mu ch n eeded ,
man - t o -man , bus ines s - t o -bu s in e s s , bus i n es s - to ­
n ew ,
gov ernm ent ,
and g overnm en t - t o -g ov er nm en t :r el a t i ons h i p
ag e . 2
I
in o u r p r e s ent
Sa t el l i t es
orb i t i ng
thr ough
t h e h eav ens wi l l
s oon
make pos s ib l e wor l d -wi de radio an d t el evi s i on and a
qu a l i ty of g l ob a l
t el ephone
serv i c e n ev er b efore
ach i ev ed .
Compu t er s acr os s the c oun t ry w i l l be l i nked
up an d t a l k i n g w i t h one an o t h er on a na t i onal ( and s ome
day i n t er con t i n en t a l ) c ommunic a t in g sys tem . 3
. ,
The Am er i c an Tel eph on e and Tel eg r aph C ompany
m a t es
data
that by
from
c i t i es ,
ov er
esti ­
r ev enue f r om cow�un i ca t i on of
one b u s iness mach i n e to an other , in d i f f e r en t
wi l l
s im i l a r
its
1 970
exceed i t s r ev enue f r om voic e tr ansm i s s i on
l ong - d i s tance l i nes . 4
I nf orma t i on Ut i l i t�- - " I nforma t i on wi l l b ecom e a pub l i c
r es ou r c e and u t i l i ty .
l ow
"5
cos t .
In
It w i l l b e avai l ab l e t o
t en y ea r s
it
is
or .
Jos eph F .
Ang el e s : Proc eeding s
p . 1 13 .
2
R amo ,
3
F i el d ,
op.
Daus e L .
( New York :
4
Di eb o l d ,
5
Peter F .
McC loskey ,
p.
ci t . ,
B ibby ,
Dr u c ker ,
Mana9.em en t R ev i ew Oc t ob e r
Ass oci a t i on ,
1 9 66 ) , pp .
Chan g e "
(Los
1 9 66 ) ,
9.
Your F ut u r e in
ci t . ,
the
Sy s t em s Conrer enc e ,
R i cha rd R o s en Pr es s ,
op .
t o p l ug i n t o
" Li v i ng Wi th
of the We s t ern
v ery
pr edic t ed that a sma l l
app l iance wi l l be av a i l ab l e f or s tud ent s
1
ev er yon e at
p.
t h e E l ec t r oni c Compu t er
In c . ,
1 962 ) ,
p.
121 .
63 .
"What Compu t er s Wi l l be Tel l i n g Y ou , "
1 966
( New Y or k :
Amer i can Manag em en t
30 - 3 3 .
r--·
86
tel ephone to help them in doing resea.r ch for homework .
In hi s
talk Dr . McCl oskey elab ora ted on the us es of the " Informa t i on
Utili ty " . l
Lawyers and Judges wi ll save unb ·�l ievab l e . amount s of
tim� in resear ch .
Doctors in searching for th e bes t diagnos is ,
' and bus iness managers who need informa tion w:i l l . be abl e t o ca ll
on a central information s ervice thrc·ugh the u t i l i ty .
Dr .
McCloskey also mentioned that ther e woul d be some d elay in the
innova ti on of these computer usages becaus e of th e psychologi cally motivated human r esi stanc e to infr ing ement of the compu ter
on a heretofore exclusive mental process .
Programming- -Pa t t ern r ecogn i ti on of voice , fac e , and
s ignature wi ll b e possib l e for a compu ter .
"Ther e is now a. great
n eed for equipm ent that can r ecogniz e pa tt erns - vi sual and
audibl e - and t hat can r ecogn i z e a man ' s featur es , h i s handwri ting , his v oi c e . " 2
output keyb oard .
There will be ext ens iv e us e of th e input
"By 1970 man wi ll use voice commun i cati on and
vi sua l communicat ion to dir ect compu t ers . " 3
"Pr ograms wi ll in corporate s elf cor r ecting f eatu r es . "4
If the wr ong program information i s fed to the compu t er t o solve
the pr obl em the computer will r ecogn i z e the error and s elect
. an other approach .
1McCloskey , op . ci t . , p . 114 .
2 Bibby , op . c i t . , p . 120 .
3
Di ebold , op . ci t . , p . 63 .
4 Ibid . ' p . 64 .
.:j
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87
"Heuer:is tic , or s el f - organizin g , sys tems- wi ll al low
machines to develop the ir own prob l em -solving methods bes t sui t ed
to the management ana ly s i s of the pr oblem at hand . " l
s y s t ems wi ll help achiev e thE! goal
: pr ograms .
of
The s e
di spensi ng wi th formal
Machines will l i t eral ly think .
Ordi nary informa ti on
f ed into the computer s b y ordinary people wi ll b e correctly
.
pr oc es s ed . 2
The Compu ter s - -Capacity of computers wil l be exc eption­
ally larg e so tha t many companies can use one at onc e . 3
modular sys t ems will be a common mode of des ign . " 4
'� oly
Ther e wil l be
a compatibili ty between compu t ers that wi l l al low any compu ter to
be tied into any other for whatev er purpose that may be requi red .
Th e Manager - -Manageme nt wil l never again be the same .
conceptual r evolution wi l l occur .
A
'�robably a new manag ement
func tion wi ll ari s e tha t wil l consul t on des ign , instal lat ion ,
pr ogramming , cont inual re - pr og ramming , and operation o£ the total
bus iness sys tem . rr S
"Ent r epr eneuriaL flair wil l hav e to be
exer cised t o apply thes e new sys tems effectively . " 6
·I·
jl
·iti!
I ;
r
II
'I
1
Ibid . ' p . 64 .
'I
Jj
:I
I
I
,,
!J: '
,.
2n rucker , op . ci t . , p . 32 .
3 Ib id . '
p . 32 .
4Di ebol d ,
op . ci t . , p . 63 .
5 Ibid . , p . 64 .
. 6 Ibid._,
p.
64 .
�h
...
APPEND IX ''A "
TWO CAS E ANALYSES O F COMPUfER INSTALLAT IONS
Th is Appendix pr e$ ents two cas es of compu t er ins tal la t i ons tha t r epr esen t ed ex tr emes of usag e .
The LOCS case · was a
maximum usage s i tua t i on where i t was the a t t empt of the ins ta l lers t o u t i l i z e the EDP c apabi l i ty to th e u tmos t .
The R ayb es tos
D ivis ion cas e was on e whe r e a minimum usag e was r eal i z ed .
I t wi l l b e shown that an EDP sys t em ins tal l a t ion can
inv o l v e ev ery thing from a change in faci l i ty , to a compl e t e r e vamping o f or gan i z at ion and pap erwork sys t em of a company .
· The s e chan g es a r e probab l y the mos t diffi cu l t par t of an EDP
sys t em i n s t al l a ti o n .
The wr i ti ng of compu ter programs is usual ly
the s trai ghtforward us e of t echn i cal engin eer ing labor .
Lib r as cope ' s Opera t i on Con trol Sys t em (LOCs ) l
The fol lowing ( t en pag es ) is a r esume of th e r easons why
the Lib ras cope Company int rodu ced a compl e t e ly compu t e r i z ed
operat ions con t r o l sys t em into their plan t .
The approach they
us ed is g iv en , a l ong wi th the conc lus i on of the i r mana g em ent
af t er a per i od of oper a t i on .
1
w . F . G i r ouard , "Dynam ic Con t r o l of an Op er a t iona!
Compl ex " , Cal i fornia Manag ement R ev i ew , Vol . I V , No . 4 , Summer
1 962 . (Los An gel es , Cal ifornia , 1 962 . ) , pp . 44 - 5 6 .
88
I
89
Librascope ' s manag �ment b el i eved that a timely f l ow of
per tinen t informati on is es sen t ial for managemen t control in
modern business . ·
Only computers ·wi th bui l t in memories and au to--
mat ic:: comput i n g talents could hope to cope wi th t h e moun tains of
·paperwork and i nforma t i on needed t o control this modern busin ess ,
par ti cularly i n the mi l i tary supply field .
The Librascope LOCS
sy s t em is a comprehensiv e sy s t em that is a l l encompass ing of the
ent ire . bus in ess oper a t i o n ,
I t does not cov er a s i ng l e funct ion
or j us t a s er i es of func ti ons ; i ns t ead , i t ti es a l l data and i n formation gather ed in the company i n t o one c en t r al comput er
pr oces s and diss eminat es t his dat a when and wher e needed with a
minimum of effort a nd dup l i ca t i on .
The f eatur es of the sys t em
ar e :
1.
Da ta are handled only onc e manual ly .
2.
A compr ehens iv e r epor t on any facet of the business is avai l -
ab l e on demand ; e . g . , proj ect s tatus , costs , his tory , e t c .
3,
The computer is fed by r emo t e s �a t ions l ocat ed thr oughout the
c ompany .
4.
Manag ement r epor ts ar e bas ed on a c ompar is on of pr es ent s tatus
agains t an o r iginal s e t of s tandards or again s t an ori ginal plan
. or sch edul e .
Need for Management Control - -Wi th t h e growth in phys ical
s i z e of modern bus iness it has b ecome v ery n ec es sary to e s t ab l ish
paper -work sy s t ems of extr emely complex natur e to i n·s u re managemen t contr o l .
These sys t ems are a mil i eu of ch ecks and bal ances
wi th an assortm ent of data g enerated as a r esul t .
When b i t s and
pi e c es of tha t data com e to th e att ent ion of a manager on a
•:
I
90
pi e cemeal b as i s ,
it
i s impos s ib l e
needed for
ad equa t e c on t r o l .
a s s imi l a t e
and d i g es t
to hav e
this w a s sh oYN!l by
handl ed ov er
inv en tory
s al es
of
is
needed t o
Ac co r ding t o
in
t h e las t
450% compa r ed t o only 80% for i ndus t r i a l wor k er s .
t ha t had annual
overv i ew
th e r emarkab l e i n -
t h e r a t i o of wh i t e c o l l a r workers
orw company
the
A c ompr eh ens iv e sy s t em
t h e i nform a ti on avai l ab l e .
Lib ras cope ' s manag em ent ,
: c r eas e in
for b ini
50 y ears ,
An exampl e i s
$40 m i l li on and i t
da i l y
1 0 , 000 p i e ces o f d a t a a l on e in j us t pr odu c t ion an d
control .
Wi t h a l a r g e v o l ume of paper Lib ras c ope d i d s om e simpl e
statis tical
ana l y s i s
t hat
i nd i ca t ed t h a t with a norma l
th a t pro c e s s es a pi e c e of i nforma t i on ov er
30
t im es ,
sys t em
i f the.
'
chance of making
chan c e of
an
error i s
on ly
t h e f i na l d a t a b eing
manag em en t
con t r o l
mis taken dec i s i ons
is
on e par t in
cor r e c t i s
exer c i s ed from
ar e bound to
o c cur
th is
a hundr ed ,
on l y on e in
the
four .
kind of a sys t em
thr ough no fau l t
of
When
then
th e
mana g er .
A pr operly d e s i g ned compu t er i z ed total
can
t heor et i cal ly giv e mor e a ccura t e and
dol l a r
expended than any
o t h er
c on t r o l
s y s t em
t imel y r ep o r t s per
t echnique known .
Wi t h th i s
. pr em i s e t h e Indus t r i a l Eng i n e er i ng Depar tmen t d e s i g n ed and i n ' s ta l l ed s u ch a sys t em .
Empl oyee
EDP when t hey
accoun t i n g .
Informa t i on P r o g r am - -Libra s c ope ' s
s t ar t ed
to
Th er efor e ,
con s i d er
on
sy s t em was in pay r ol l
an empl oyee edu c a t ion prog ram was
t u t ed t o i nf orm al l per s onnel
wha t i t s impa c t
the
on ly u s e of
wha t
t h e n ew sys t em was
their j ob s wou ld b e .
A plan
of
for
in s t i and
r e tr aining ,
j. '
91
trans fer , a t tr i t i on , etc . , was to b e us ed to t ak e car e of the
empl oyees who wou l d be surplus s ed by the sy s t em .
•
layoff s wer e planned .
As a r es u l t no
Wi thout the cooper a ti on of th e empl oy ee
tha t such a plan made pos sib ].e , the smoo th tr ans i t i on fr om th e
' old manua l t o a compl et ely r evo luti onary EDP sys t em wou ld n o t
have occur r ed .
The Sys t em Research and D ev el opmen t - -The effo r t was pri mari ly handled by the Industl:ial Eng ineer ing D epar tment wi th
suppor t from other l in e and s t aff depar tm ents as r equ i r ed .
Ini ti ally t h ey under t ook two maj or r es ear ch pr oj ects as a
pr epa r a t o ry mov e b efore s tar t ing the exact des ign of the final
sys t em .
A c omp r eh ens iv e s tudy of al l types of equipmen t that
was ava i l ab l e or plann ed on the n a t i onal and i n t ernation a l marke t
was made .
A t i t s conclus i on th e company was s u r e tha t i t kn ew
the equipmen t i t wou ld even tua l l y buy woul d be the opt imum cho i c e
for t h e j ob cons ider i ng al l fac t ors s uch · as pr i c e , capabi l i ty ,
cos t s of ope r a t ion , e t c .
A second s tudy was done of wha t sys t ems wer e a l r eady in
exi s t ence tha t migh t b e of u se in whol e or par t in the Lib r a · s c ope ins tal l a t i on .
Th i s study r ea l l y paid off in t im e and mon ey
in that much of wha t was requ i r ed was dev el oped a lr eady ei the r by
pr iv a t e con cerns , or by th e equipment manufac tur ers thems elv es .
Th ey als o came up wi th th e fact t ha t no other company had ever
approach ed the oper a t ions con t ro l probl em in the s am e way that
Libra scope was i n t ending to .
The d es ign of t he sys tem was pr edi ca ted on thr ee bas i c
r equir em ent s .
Fi rs t , r epor t s should b e i d eal ly sui t ed for th e
,I
I
92
l ev el of managem ent for which they wer e int ended , giving tha t
informa tion whi ch i s n ecessary for deci s i ons as a r esul t of the
r esponsibility exacted and au thori ty del egated .
Secon d , the only
data that woul d be f ed into sys t em would be the bas ic da ta r e ­
quir ed t o accompl ish t h e r epcr ting funct ion .
Thi rd , the system
was t o be dynamic and operate on "real - t ime contro l "
•
•
•
r eal ­
. t ime control meaning that s imultan eously as an ev ent occurs the
informa tion is fed into the central compu t er .
This i nforma tion
i s compar ed agains t control cr i ter ia and if corr ective acti on i s
necess ary i t i s cal led for imm ediately .
Repor ts from thi s sys tem
are therefore nev er older than the time a t which information wa s
pr inted out of th e compu t er .
The bas ic tool us ed in the dev elopment of the sy s t em was
the old t ime tried fl ow chart .
New symbols wer e dev el oped
because i t turned out to be th e only way to a ttack the problem .
Detai l analy s i s showed wha t informa ti on was necessary and what
was extraneous , wher e the b es t poin ts to col l ect data wer e , who
should get cer tai n kinds of repor ts and how oft en .
Data R eproces sing El imin ation - - The invest igators found
tha t much of the data tha t was coll ect ed was proc ess ed and r e ­
processed many times .
To cope wi th this s ituati on a "captur e
da ta" conc ept was dev el oped .
Once a piece of data has been
captur ed by the sys t em i t is nev er again operat ed on manual ly .
In order t o s implify con trol of the sys tem th e company
treats al l i tems as if t hey wer e bought , whether i t is an internal
pur cha s e or an external pur chas e .
From a sys t em s tandpoin t then ,
the repor ts ar e iden t i cal for "make" as wel l as "buy " it ems .
93
It shou l d b e emphas i z ed that the ent ir e sys t em was not
ins tal l ed at one poin t in t ime .
s t al l ed in phas es .
Ins tead i t was s egmen t ed and in -
Old sy s t ems tha t were opE� r a ting sa t i sfactor ily
-wer e not di scarded unti l t h e n ew sys t em had b een put in t o oper a t ion and compl etely "debug g ed " .
Phas e I , I ns tal la t i o n - -This phas e took al l func t i on s into
its s cope from eng ineerin g r el eas es t o shippi n g .
Equipment -- ''Di spa tch s ta t i ons " are s t r a t eg i ca l ly loca t ed
thr oughou t the p l an t so tha t data can b e ent er ed dir ec tly in to
the central compu t er .
In addi t i on " I npu t cen t er s '' ar e located
at var i ous poi n t s tha t ar e cap abl e of automati cal ly originat ing
action type of documen ts ; e . g . , pur chas e order s and shop order s ,
et c .
Als o , t he inpu t centers genera t e punched cards or t ape for
the automat i c r een t r y of a ct i on comp l e t e i n t o the d ispa t ch s t a t i ons .
Engineering R e l ease - -Th e engineering r el eas e gr oup s t ar ts
the s ys t em in oper ati on by making an ind en tu red par ts l i s t ( IPL )
from a r el ea s e of drawings from eng ineeri n g .
Th e IPL i s ent er ed
i n t o the c omput er f i l e for ''Mas t er s t a tus r epor ti ng" a t a l a t er
- da t e .
In addi t ion such informat i on as how many a r e us ed on the
next ass emb l y , PERT cod e , Line of Bal anc e numb er , e t c . is
en tered a t thi s t im e .
The computer r e - s or ts t h e da ta in t o a
num eri cal par ts l i s t so that i d enti cal par ts us ed on different
subas s emb l ies may be poo l ed for pur chas ing r equi r em en t s .
Fr om
the num er ical l i s t the fo l l owing sub l is ts ar e g enera t ed :
1.
P ur chas e r equi r ements for the pr oj ect .
2.
Li s t of i t ems i n inv en tory that may b e us ed for the pr oject .
. '.·
·.
94
3.
A l i s t o:f make i t erns :for i n t ernal :fabri c<:, t ion .
Pur chas ing Cycl e - -Th e l i st o:f purcha s ed i t ems i s s ent to
. the pur chasing depar tment along wi th a con trol "buy11 card .
The
pur chas ing is done wi th t he buyer giving informa ti on t o the
By inser t ing the "buy 11 card and oth<:!r cards in a :fl exo-
typis t .
wr i t er , a .perfect error -fr ee typewri t t en pur cha s e order is
wr i t t en .
Pr ice , dat e , e t c . is a l l tha t is en t er ed manual ly .
At the same time a pur chas e order is b ei �g wri t t en , the
comput er is aut oma t i cal ly get ti n g the i nforma tion :for a :fol l ow up
:fi l e .
Thi s :fol l ow up :fi l e i s us ed t o check the s ta tus o:f orders
and it i s a l s o u sed t o. indi cat e r ec eipt o:f ma t er ial .
I:f t h e
i tems ar e r eceiv ed damaged o r mis counted the compu t er automa t i cal ly i nforms the cor r ect p er s onnel in the plan t who are r equir ed
to t ake a c t i on .
I:f no emergency exi s ts on th e r eceipt o:f the
i t ems the compu ter j us t t racks t h eir progr ess thr ough the
vari ous s t eps r equi red to pu t them in s t or es and ev entua l ly
indi ca t es tha t payment is du e the v endor .
Exc ept i on Principl e of Management Repor ts - - Th e oper a ti onal r ou ti n e i s en tered i n t o t h e compu t er but her e is wher e
the r outine ends .
The performance is compar ed agai n s t t h e s tan-
dard or plan as the cas e may be and i :f ther e is a variance then
a 11manag ement r epor t " is i s sued .
Thes e r epor t s are truly a c t i on type o:f r epor t s .
The
:fol l owing are a :few typi cal examp l es o:f this type o:f r epor t :
1.
Past Due Material R epor t .
This r epor t i s i ss u ed when
ma t erial wi l l be pas t the du e date unless cor r ec t iv e ac t ion i s
taken .
An i t em on ce ent er ed o n thi s r epor t wil l con tinue t o b e
,--
95
on the l i s t unt i l cor r ect iv e act ion i s taken which wil l a l l evi ate
the s i tuation .
2.
Vendor -Analys i s Repor t .
Thi s r epor t s ta ti s ti cally analyzes
each v endor ' s performance and i s us ed to det·�rmi n e th e over -all ·
performance and r e l i abi li ty of v endor s .
3.
Dol l a r Comm i tment R epor t .
Thi s r epor t as i t s nam e impl ies i s
a finan cial r epor t on the s ta tus of t h e purchas ing depar tm en t .
I t may b e g en er a ted on demand a t any time , for any per s on who has
an i n t er es t in the fi nan c i a l detai l s of this oper a t i on .
Manufa ctur ing Cycl e - - Like the order l i s t g iv en to pur chas ing , a simi lar l i s t i s g iv en t o the M ethods Depar tment for
g en er a t i on of opera ti on sh eets for i terns whi ch wi l l be fab ricated
i n hous e .
The oper a t i on sheet i s simi lar to others gen eral ly us ed
in i ndus try in tha t i t contains s equ enci ng , s tandar ds , tool ing ,
etc .
However , when i t i s made up th er e i s s imul tan eously
g ener a t ed a punched tape whi ch i s forwarded to produc t ion con trol f or th ei r us e i n control of the pr oduc t .
F r om the punched t ape and wi th a knowl edg e of quan tity
r eq ui r ed work order s ar e g en er a t ed .
Info rmation i s dupli ca ted
· from th e oper a t i on sheet vi a the punched tape on the work orders .
· Lots s iz e and s chedul e ar e ent er ed manual ly but the s t andard
t imes g ener a t ed from thi s informa t i on are cal cula t ed by the com pu ter au toma t i cally a n d ent er ed o n the wor k order .
F o r each
ope r a t i o n a work t i cke t , material r equi s i t ions , an d tool with drawal cards ar e au toma t i cal ly produced .
The ope r a t i on sheet al ong wi th t h e afor e1n enti oned for ms
I
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96
now compl e t es th e r el ease packag e .
When this package i s pu t i n t o
work on t h e f l oor a n open f i le in th e compu t er i s g enera ted whi ch
wi l l track the pr ogress and performance of the par t i cu l a r j ob
thr ough the shop .
Mat er i a l wi thdrawn , tool s in us e , and p erf ormance agains t
s tandards are tracked .
I n t h e proc ess of making the par t
( a l l of
whi ch is tracked au tomati ca l l y inc luding the machi n e on whi ch
oper a t or s a r e suppo s ed to b e wor king ) , if a varianc e occu r s on e
of the afor em en t i oned managem en t r eports i s made .
If for some
special r eason i t is des ired to d et ermine the s t a tus of an i t em
tha t i s not out of control the compu ter may b e interrogated t o
determine i t s s tatus .
M anufacturi ng R epor ts - -Th e pr ocedur e for repor t i ng i s
s im i l ar to that in t he procur emen t cyc l e .
1.
The P e rformance R epor t g ives actua l v ersus s t andard perform -
ance .
2.
Work Cent er Sch edul ing R epor t i s a fift een day for ecas t of
the l oad for . th e work c en t er .
Thi s r epor t i s the one whi c h keeps
var i ous for emen i nformed on the s ta tu s of j obs in th eir ar ea of
r espon s ib i l i ty .
M as t er St atus Repor t - -This i s the mos t s i n g l e compr ehen s iv e r epor t pub l i sh ed .
I t is a r epor t of the s ta tus of every
s i ng l e pr oj ect in the ent i r e organi z ati on i n enough detai l s o
tha t the us ing manag er knows wh er e ev ery compon en t of the proj ec�
ar e .
Thi s i n cludes data from Eng ineer ing R el eas e thr ough
s hippin g of the end it em .
The exc ep t i on pr incipl e is appl i e d
h er e a l s o in tha t t h e i tems o n th e r epor t ar e only tho s e tha t ar e
1
'! .
97
b ehind s chedul<� .
Thi s r eport i s i s sued to vari ous levels o£
manag ement at interval s dependent on i t s usag e r equi rements
•
. The r epor ting sys tem is designed to work wit h all emergencies
. tha t could hav e b een conceiv�!d in advanc e .
I t accommodates as
· many o£ th e shor t cuts (such as par tial or incompl e t e eng ineer
. r el eas es on a job , etc . ) that a pr oduction depar tment could
dr eam up in order to meet tight sch edule r equirements .
Sys tem Span --The sy s t em is fundamental ly mean t to encom pas s many firms or div i s i ons i n i ts ev entual control .
It could
be used by a central mi li tary con t ractor and tied i nto i t s sub cont ractor s for a mas ter r eal time control of en tire maj or
proj ects .
Self Pol icin�- - If ' a b i t o£ da ta should hav e been ent er ed
: the fail safe features of the syst em mak e note of the missing
da ta , and the offender is notifi ed .
I£ a quanti ty o£ parts
pas s ed out o£ receiv i ng exceeding the numb er r eceived , or if a
quanti ty of par ts pas s ed to operati 6n (2 ) exceeds the quantity
shown complet ed in oper ation ( 1 ) the dis cr epancy i s repor t ed .
I£ the opposi t e occur s a mis count by the sys tem is possibl e but
the error is on th e si de o£ too much inprocess inven t ory which is
on the fai l safe s ide from a con trol s tandpoint and in r eali ty
the quantity in work is at leas t the cor r ect amount .
Mod el ing- -The sys tem is capabl e o£ s imu lating the effect
· on plan t operat ion of various i tems which could change the
schedul e requir emen ts such as rush orders or cancel l ed contracts .
This ab i l i ty is one o£ the impor tant wa.ys in which LOCS servi ces
the 1'1anag em ent .
98
· It i s no t the opini on o£ the management at Librascope
tha t i t has found a subs ti tu te £or good mana g er ial judgement .
A
compu t er sy s t em of thi s s o r t i s not capab le o£ cons ider i ng all
the contingenci es that could occur in maj or deci s i on s ei ther sh:>rt
I t does flag deviati ons £rom plan and indi cate
; or long range .
' il
j
that a deci s i o n should be made bu t it cannot figure out solutions
It gives manag ement t imely repor ts o£ al l the
to problems .
I
'!i
;
·!f
· i.
.!
available £acts so tha t the b es t decis i on can be made .
Conclus i ons on the LOCS Sys tem - -Two y ear s after i ts ins tallation when the ar ticle was wri t t en from which mos t o£ this
descr ipti on was taken i t was the opi ni on of the manag em ent at
Libras cope that they had succeeded in their or iginal obj ec tive .
. The pr oblems encounter ed wer e not o£ the type o£ simplifying
compu tations £or optimi zation o£ condi ti ons as t� desi gners had
thought thei r j ob would be when they or iginally embarked on the
pr oj ect .
Ins tead i t turned out t o be a problem for dev el opment
,.
I
,,
'I
;;'
o£ an informa tion sys tem of mass s torage and r eady access and
retri eval .
The pr obl ems o£ ins tal lat ion wer e more mechanical
than human , as was expected b ecaus e o£ the ext ens ive s elli ng job
done by the Indus trial Engi neer ing Depar tmen t on i t s introduction .
It was r eal i z ed o£ cour s e that one of the larg e pr oblems
that had plagued ot h er compa nies in EDP sys t ems was the in£l exi b i l i ty once a maj or sys tem was ins tal led and the difficu l t ies of
adding on to an exi s ti ng sy s t em .
For thi s reas on the Industrial
Engineering Depar tment dogma ti cal ly held to i t s s tand that th e
sys t em sh ould
be
tota l ly encompas sing and integr a t ed for the
r
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I
99
en t ir e opera t i on .
Thi s has a l so shown to hav e paid off .
The
b r eak even poin t was es timated at a l i t t l e over two years of
oper a t i on .
Job Locati on and Shop Ord er Updating
wi t h P unch C ards - a eas e l
·
Intr oduction - -The. fol lowing ( four pages ) wi l l describe an
EDP sy s t em for keeping track of j obs i n a factory .
Thi s sys t em
i s n o t i n t eg r a t ed with any other but was ins tal l ed simply to
s tr eamline the par t i cul ar op er ation th at was pr e s en t ly being
performed by hand .
A d es cr ip t i on wi l l a l s o b e given on how the
individual Shop Order s ar e upda t ed .
Backgr ound- -The company (Rayb es tos Divi s i on ) ins tal ling
· this sys t em is a manufactur·er of automotive brake l i ning , c l u t ch
facin g , and automa ti c t r ansmi ssi on pla t es .
They supply original
equipmen t t o cus tom ers on special or ders and r eplacemen t t o t he
indus try i s supplied from a s hel f inven t ory whi ch i s manufac t ur ed
according to a sal es for ecas t .
,
The s ame depa r tmen t s chedules
both kinds of bus iness to any par t i cular depa r tment .
Th e Manual Sys t em - -The product i on depa r tment fed back to
production con t r o l the movemen t of j obs between depa r tm en t s on a
dai ly bas is .
However , for th e quanti ty of work i n th e factory
( 3000 l o t s ) this took four peopl e 1 2 hour s ea ch to compi l e for a
monthly r epor t .
I n addi t ion , th is r eport was i s sued f ou r days
1 c . M . An t i s dale ,
"Job Location and Shop Order Updating
wi th P unch Cards -A Case . " P r oduc t i on an d Invent ory Managem en t ,
V ol
V I I , No . 1
(Chicago I l l i n oi s . Ameri can and P r o duct ion Inv en ­
t�ry C ontr-;l--Soci e ty , Januar y , 1 96 6 . )
.
!;·
,.
1 00
after the clos e- ou t of i nputs .
The r esul t was pas t due del iv er -
ies and unhappy cus tomer s .
Solutions - - The company already had EDP for accoun ting ,
payrol l , b i lling , and sal es analysis .
They r evi ewed al l the
. pr esent r epor ts a nd after el iminati ng those that they did not
consi der absolut ely essen tial , i t was determined that ther e was
enough time on the computer for production control to pv.t out the
r epor ts that wer e needed .
Punch Card Sy st em - -A punch car d has 80 columns ; ther e for e i t was deci ded to br eak each week into two time per iods .
Personnel were indoc t r ina ted i n t o thinking of s chedu l e in t erms
of the t ime periods ins t ead of days or weeks , etc .
was made up for each lot of work in the factory .
A single card
When a l o t i s
mov ed the card is mov ed i n central cont rol b y producti on control ; .
thi s information i s taken from the . r epor t whi ch manufactur ing
s ti l l suppl ies to product ion cont rol wi th dai ly repor ts of
ma terial mov ement .
As a resul t a minimum demand on the tabula t -
ing department is made .
The computer i s used only for i ts
abili ty to print rapidly .
All collation and ext ending was accom-
pl i shed by the physi cal implementati on of the sys t em .
The r epor t wh ich i s is sued to each depar tment foreman
shows only the work that i s s cheduled in his department .
t el l at a gl ance what is r equired of him .
He can
Th e fol low ing fi gur e
i l lus trates the forma t of the r epor t . (F igur e 1 }
Sys t em Ins ta.l l a t i on - -One depar tmen t at a time was con v er t ed .
car ds .
I t took 12
man
weeks of work to pr epar e all 3000 punched
The sy s t em was in stal l ed in 3 weeks without any dua l i ty
101
PRODUCT ION CONTROL SCHEDULE
Dep t .
23
Lot No .
Cus t .
P r e s en t P o:!ri od
32
....::;__
:....; __
_
_
Quan .
'r r)i t
, I
il l
7
Ii
. ll
' .
8
· F igur e 1
of r ecording .
As a r esul t the total time t o ins tall the sy s t em
was cut to 50% of wha t the equipmen t manufactur er es timat ed i t
would tak e .
§yst em Main t enance - -The mos t s ingl e impor tant featur e of
main taining the sys t em is the t imeliness
of i nforma t ion input .
.
--�
N o delays can b e t o l er a t ed .
pu t informa tion i s pos s ib l e .
As a r esul t a c l o s e s chedu l e of o ut At pr ecis ely the r ight momen t t h e
del ivery of cards to EDP occur s , thr ee hours la t er the r epor t i s
r eady , and with in th e hour produc t i on con trol per sonal ly del i v er s
the copi es to a l l opera t ing per s onnel .
The r epor ts ar e r eviewed a t weekly fo l l owup meetings wi th
· the d epar tmen t for eman and depar tment expedi t er .
Th e g eneral
for eman and the supervi s or of expedi t e r s ar e a l s o in a t t enda n c e
at thes e me etings .
D epar tment pr og r es s r epor ts of planned v er s us
actua l a�e pr es ent ed .
As a r es u l t timely high l ev el impetus t o
problems i s poss ibl e .
In addi t ion s chedul e chang es a r e mor e
r eadi ly ins tal l ed into the sy s t em in that the coor dina t i on of a l l
,. ..
I :
102
affected personnel is much more rapidl y accomplished .
Shop Order Updating- -The fol l owin9 is a descripti on of a
s econd us age of ED P by this company ' s pr oduction control depar t ment .
For each order r eceiv ed a s eparate punch card i s made .
: The back of the card is used to pos t shipments made by the
traffic depa r tment .
Th e informa t i on is gather ed from a daily
tabulation by the traffic departmen t .
Th e sales are pr omised on
a weekly basis so once each week the car ds f or pa s t due , cur r ent
week , and n ext week ' s shipments ar e pul l ed and s ent t o data
proces s ing for pr int ou t of thr ee l is ts .
This is the only usage
of EDP in this por tion of the sys tem .
The expected del iv ery da te is then determined fr om the
con trol system pr ev iously described and i s pos ted next to the
; order on thes e l is ts .
Copi es of th e . r epor t are giv en to Sh ip-
pi ng , Packaging , Factory Manag ement , and Sal es .
Every week the
sal es department informs every cus tomer of th e del ivery s tatus
of his order .
Equipment Usage - - Tabulating departmen t is used one hour
· per day for card punching , plus four mor e hours per week to run
th e produc t ion con trol r epor t .
The shop or der r epor t requi r es
· only 15 minutes a week of machine t ime .
Occas iona l ly i t is pos sible for cards to be des troyed in
any EDP sy s t em .
If this happens then a n ew s et is made up by
r ef erring to the last r epor t and upda ting from exi s t ing s t atus .
Summar�- -The company feel s tha t i ts goal has b een accompl ished .
Deli ver i es t o cus tomers hav e improv ed t o the point
where pas t du e order s are v i r tual ly non - existent .
.I
I
APPEND IX "B"
THE QUESTIONNA IRE {Fi r s t Hal f of Front }
1.
Are you a :
Worker 0
2.
How many people are under your dir ec tion in the organization?
1 1 to 50 0
51 to 100 0
100 or more 0
0 to 5 0
5 to 10 0
3.
In which department do you work?
4.
How many y ears have you b een managing { incl uding firs t-l ine supervis ion }?
0 to 5 0
5 to 10 0
10 or mor e 0
5.
How much educa t i on do you have?
Col lege Degree 0
High School 0
6�
How many compan ies have you worked for in your bus iness car eer ?
7.
How many of thes e companies us ed compu ters?
8.
How many people are empl oyed in your plant?
100 to 500 0
500 to 1000 0
Up to 100 0
9.
Name the departments us ing computers in your plan t .
Non e O Accoun ting 0 Production Con trol 0 R & D Engineering 0 Manufacturing 0
Mat er ial Con trol 0 Al l 0 Other
Fir s t -line supervisor 0
Manager 0
Executive 0
Staff 0
Advanced Col l eg e Degree 0
1000 or mor e 0
10 .
What department pioneered th e use of a computer in your plant?
11 .
What Indus try do you work in?
THE QUESTIONNAIRE (Con tinued )
( Second Half of Front )
12 . Hav e computers changed the numb er of peopl e whi ch you superv i s e?
Les s peopl e o·
More peopl e 0
No change 0
13 . Have comput ers chang ed the educat i on r equirements of people you superv ise?
Less educatio!l 0
Mor e educat ion 0
No chang e 0
1 4 . Do the peopl e working for you r equ i r e a knowl edge of comput er programming?
1 5 . Do y ou hav e any computer trained special i s ts in the depar tment?
Yes 0
No 0
Yes 0 No 0
1 6 . Of the fol lowing fiv e bas ic funct ions of a Manag er , to what degree hav e computers
aff ect ed/as s i s t ed you?
No t at al l
Slightl�
Extr emel�
0
Plan
0
0
0
Staff
0
0
0
Organi z e
0
0
0
Dir ect
0
0
0
Cont rol
·8
17 . How has the compu ter varied the fr equency of r epor ts?
No chang e 0
Decreased 0
Incr eas ed 0
18 . How has the compu ter vari ed the detail of repor ts?
Less detail 0
No chang e 0
Mor e detai l 0
1 9 . How do you or your Manager keep informed on changes in computer t echnology?
Sal esmen 0
Not done O
Central data-proc essing servi ce department O
2 0 . Why was the comput er added in your cas e?
To save money O
Improve repor t ing 0
rm
Other 0
·
·
rm
--=
THE QUESTIONNAIR E (Con tinued )
( R everse Sid e )
21 . What kind of cours es hav e you taken or do y ou intend t o take o n comput ers?
Technical Oper ation of D
Intr odu ction to us e D
None D
22 . How many years ago wer e you aware of the impact of compu t ers on your job?
0 to 1 0
2 to 5 0
6 to 10 0
1 1 or more 0
not aware D
23 . In what por tion of the Uni t ed St ates do you work?
sE D
NE D
sw O
NW O
24 . How has the comput er affect ed the fr equency of con tact wi th the foll owing?
No Chan2e
More Contact
Less Contac t
Subordinat es
0
0
0
P eer s
0
0
0
Superior s
0
0
0
25 . Do you requir e in your own pos i tion a knowl edge of computers?
Explain , if yes
Yes D
No D
26 . In your total experi ence was there ev er a rev er ting from a compu ter back to a manual
sys tem?
Yes 0 No 0 Why?
27 . Lis t the kinds of data or r epor ts tha t you personally analyze and check if proces s ed
by a computer .
0
0
8
28 . Li s t r epor ts which you pr epare per sonally and check if subs equ en tly proces s ep in some
way by a computer .
0
2 9 . If you hav e any fur ther comments regarding the subj ec ts cov ered in thi s ques tionnaire
pleas e wr i te them below .
Lb
.,_.
0
\J1
APP END IX 11C 1 1
��--� -I[��
_!_��
I.Lf'j·�.r�
����··
1 06
A m e ri c a n P ro d u ction a n d l n ,� e n to ry Co n t r o l S o c i ety
International
Headquarters:
330 SO UTH WE LLS STRE ET
·o
CH ICAGO, ILLINOIS 60606
312 939�4955
IC
PLEASE REJ'LY TO :
23 Sheffield Drive
Racine, Wisconsin 63402
Home ( 4 1 4 ) G3!)-19GS
Bus.
( 414) 636-G595
>SWELl.. W. VAN COTT
esldent
29 ,
July
1966 ·
Dear F e l low APICS Membe r :
One
of
the bas e ob j e c ti v e s
educ a t i onal
a·l l
of
our S o c i e ty
is
to
f u r ther
a r e a as much as pos s ib l e by par ti c ipa ting in
typ e s wh i ch are b e n e f i c i a l to · our S oc i e ty and to th e
· s ent .
our
fi eld
in
the
a c t iv i t i e s of
f i e ld we r epre-
We r e cently we r e app ro a ched by a Mr . Ted S undqui s t , who i s a
Master ' s d eg r e e candidate at S an F ernando V a l l ey S t a t e Co l l ege , C a l i for­
nia .
Mr . S undqu i s t in p r eparing his the s i s has r a i s e d the que s t ion th a t
i s g e rmain t o o u r f i e l d and h a s r equ e s t ed the S o c i e ty ' s h e lp i n ob t a i n­
ing i n f ormation f rom o ur memb e r s .
We hav e ag reed th a t i t i s to the b e s t
in ter e s t of the S o c i e ty to f u r th e r th i s s t udy a n d we , ther e f o r e , g r anted
th i s p e rmi s s i on .
You hav e been one o f
. a t ra ndom for
th e
1 , 0 0 0 memb e r s o f our S oc i e ty wh o were s e lected
answe r i n g th i s p o l l ,
and
it wo u l d b e app r e c i a t e d
if
you
wou l d answer the enclo s ed q ue s ti onna i r e { b o th s i d e s ) w i th as much ac­
curacy as po s s ib l e and r e turn i t promp tly in the e n c lo s ed , s e l f -add r e s s ed
env e lope .
the mo r e
As wi th
r e l i ab l e
a l l po l l s ,
the
r e s u lts .
th e mo r e d e t a i l e d
The
and
a c c u r a te th e answe r s
f o l lowing parag raph w a s
s ubmi tted by
Mr . S undqui s t to exp l a i n what h e wants in th i s q u e s ti onna i r e i n order
tha t h e can make con c l u s i ons and p ub l i s h a th e s i s on th e r e s u l t s of thi s
s urv ey .
"If
you work
answer
in
an organi z a ti on
the ques tions
r e l a t i ng
working in your p r e s e n t j ob
wi th the condi tions of your
the que s t i o n r egarding
" mo r e peop l e "
or
ten y e a r s
Your
efforts
i f you now
i n answering
j ob
the p l a n i s
Thank
for your
not b e e n a f f ec t ed b y a
a computer by
f i v e or
as
ten
y e ars
they wer e
then .
the que s ti ons
For
you
computer ,
�
the p r e s ent
examp l e :
s uperv i s e ,
to hav e
and ma i l ing
app r e c i a ted .
On
an swer
i t pub l i sh e d
cooperation
the answe r s
When the
i n the AP I CS
the s i s
Journal
and -help .
,.. -·
1?.�·� �
I nt e r n a t i onal
that
Comp a r e
ago .
o f people you
P roduction and I nventory Management .
you
a s s um i ng
s up e rv i s e more p e op l e than you wo uld have
envelope would b e
comp l e ted
tha t h a s
th e quanti ty
ago . "
s e lf-ad dres s ed
to
in
five
the
has b e e n
•
.
.
-
P r e s i dent
Cong ress for Progress
'I
•
•
.
1 966
9th Annual NAT I ONAL CONFERENCE AND T EC H N I CAL EXHI BIT
I
' I'
: �:
�:
'
I
...f1RST CL.A.SS.
W�Jand
�ills
' llfci�i'
A f · teunilJ-i,�1 �os
FeR
BUSII
.
B US I N ESS R E P LY M A I L
NO POSTAGE STAMP NECESSARY IF MAI LED I N THE UNJTEO STATES
POSTA G E WILL BE PA I D BY
TED SUNDQUIST
[. .) -.)
�
.) L i\ '1 1 \.. L
-- L:::::::J
r:·::::::;
t= ·:: 21
b._· ; . ·. ")
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L�-:::nll
I , · tl
t::::=:::z::::a
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..
E . -. - . . :-p
t. -- �t-< . .,
23709 Crosson Drive
Woodland Hi lls, Calif. 9 1 364
.·
__
. . ... ... .... .
- - ·· · · - · ·
. . ..
-
�
·----- - - - ------ --·
-
-- ---
·
· · --- --- ---- - -
....,
__
---- �--- --·· · ----·
'
.
-
'•
•
•
P l e a s e f i l l out and r e turn t h e
Que s t i o nna i r e t o :
Mr .
T e d S un d qui s t
2 3 7 0 Cr o s s o n Dr .
Wood l a nd H i l l s ;
C a l i fornia
l O S .-\: · s n c s Ci-!APT E R 4 5
Le t t e r t o Los Ange les Sect ion
enc l o s e d
.•
APPEND IX
"D':
•
1
1.09
0
0
_ .,
0
"' "'
0 .. .....
0
"'
. \
! ·.
•.
• •
APPEND IX 1 1 E"
THE FOLLOWING PAGES CONTAIN A COPY OF
THE TOTAL TABULATION OF
RESULTS OF THE SURVEY
1 10
APPENDIX "E"
R ESULTS OF THE SURVEY
I
I
.
0
z
�
.
0
0
•n
z
+>
(/)
(.\)
;j
a
(1 )
-
1
I
I
I
Answer
Ques tion and Ca t eg ory
(2 )
I
l
Ar e y ou a :
How many peopl e ar e under your
dir ect ion in the organ i z a t i on ?
2
I
4
I
I
I
I
5
8
How many year s hav e you been
managing?
How much educa t i on do you hav e?
I How
many people are emp l oyed i n
y our plant?
----
�---· --- --
1
I
(3 )
I
Q)
"d
0
u
I
I
I
I
1/)
l-1
Q)
...-1 1/)E:
...-1 1::
� �
Produc t i on C ontrol
Manag er s only
�
(6 )
(7 )
21 3
12
{5)
1
2
3
4
5
12
82
213
45
70
0-5
6-10
1 1 -50
51 -100
1 00+
6
7
8
9
10
97
78
146
45
48
, 20
40
90
40
23
0-5
5-10
10+
High School
Col lege
Ad . Col leg e
11
12
17
18
19
20
12 9
121
1 51
159
1 95
52
52
81
80
83
1 02
28
to 100
loo- 5oo
500-1000
1 000+
29
30
31
32
21
115
90
191
I
g. �
I
•n
..., 0\
1/) ..., 25
r:l u
Q) <J (il
...l � Q)
� 0.. @
Q) 1::
r:l Q)
..c::
..., .c: 1/)
>2s 1::
w 8.
s
0 0
(8 )
(9 )
(10 )
79
18
12
..., u 1/)
� 0.. ::s
::s
u o..
0 ..., ::s
z u
I
'
I
I
9
65
48 j
90
---·-·
c
.
o w
...-1 Q)
...-1 1/)
� �
(4 )
Worker
Supervi s or
Manager
Executive
sta££
fll
...,
1/)
l-1
Q)
0\
...-1 r:l�
...-1 r:l
l
I
--
___ ___
.!.
... -- ------
-- .
.. ·- . . ---�- - .
- - --
.
i
APPENDIX "E" {Cont inued)
9
I
I
I
Name t h e departments using comput ers
in y our plan t .
I
12
1
I
13
14
15
16
1
I
l
1
I
l
None
Ac c tg .
· P rod . Ct l .
Engr .
Mfg .
Mtl .Ctl .
Al l
N/C
More
Les s
Have comput er s c ha ng ed the number
of peopl e which y ou superv i s e ?
Hav e compu ter s changed the educat i on
r equi remen t s of peopl e y ou super v i s e?
N/C
M or e
Less
Do th e peopl e working for y ou r equi r � Yes
a knowl edge of comput er pr og ramming? I No
.
Ye s
Do you have any comput er trained
No
specia l i s t s in the depar tmen t?
I
22 .
Ll
L2
L3
L4
L5
L6
L7
49
286
229
1 05
131
1 92
77
I L22
L21
L23
213
88
75
L24
L2 5
L2 6
1 72
204
2
89
1 06
1
Bl
B2
93
300
45
1 60
B3
B4
135
265
57
1 51
1
29
112
39
43
1
9
1
2
42
10
25
8
4
2
3
37
40
1
4
2
19
60
1
14
1
8
7
2
20
57
1
14
0
11
0
7
4
8
24
44
4
4'
3
4
0
2
4
6
1
29
36
7
6
4
1
5
1
0
1
6
4
19
38
16
7
3
. 1
4
0
1
9
0
I
� I
5
2
0
9
5
0
0
Of the fol lowin g five bas i c func tions
of a manager , to wha t d egr ee hav e
computer s aff ec t ed/as s i s t ed you?
P lan
N/C
Sli gh t
Extr eme
B5
B6
B7
63
122
175
26
66
98
St aff
N/C
Slight
Ext r em e
B8
B9
BlO
1 54
150
43
76
85
20
I N/C
Slight
Ex treme
Bl l
Bl 2
Bl3
1 13
1 58
78
55
82
43
Organi z e
I
•
1
1
. -' -----
·--'-- -- - ---
____
,
....
....
l\)
----- -
- -- --------�--�--
APPENDIX
I
+-' !
•r-i
(/)
(l)
&
II
Question and Category
(2 ) .
Dir ect
Con trol
17
How has the computer vari ed the
fr equency of r eports?
18
How has the computer vari ed the
detai l of r epor t s ?
19
How do you or your manag er keep
informed on changes in computer
t echnol ogy?
Why was the compu ter added in your
case?
20
21
Product i on Control
Manag er s only
I
I
{1 )
16
(con t ' d)
{Cont inued )
I
.
0
z
s::
0
"E"
What kind of cours es hav e you taken
or do you i n t end to take on
computers?
I
I
i
l
i
. I
�I
(l)
't:l
0
u
Answer
I N/C
(3 )
(/)
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r-1 s::
c:r: c:r:
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1
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+-' 0(Il +-'IJJ +-'01. I
0.. 1
0g. 01
IJJ O..
{7 )
32
81
67
15
50
127
146
15
32
''1:66
13
14
31
32
128
54
111
22
35
35
149
1
6
4
0
4
7
8
2
2
11
1
0
1
1
11
6
6
3
0
2
8
..
··-·-·
-
II! U O
(l) () (J:,l
...J c:r:
' (l)
(/)
+-' u
c:r: 0.. ;::!
s::
r-1 •r-i
r-1
c:r: ;::!
(/)
(6)
(5)
(4)
B14
75
Bl5
156
I Sl igh t
B16
121
Extreme
N/C
'38
Bl7
B18
Slight
90
B19
23 9
Extreme
281
B20
Incr ease
B2 l
30
Decrease
N/C
B22
63
B23
311
More
33
B24
Less
N/C
B25
31
B2 8
71
Salesmen
72
B29
Not done
24 3
EDP Dept . B30
B31
109
Savi ng
265
Repor t ing B32
90
Other
B3 3
R l f 81
None
R2
Oper ation
73
231
Introdc t ' n R�
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(/)
,....
(l)
01
CIS
r-1 s::
r-1 CIS
c:r: �
·-· ·
· · · -
(8 )
•
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7
36
29
0
23
56
62
6
9
70
6
2
10
7
60
19
61
17
11
13
64 ..
,...(l).
.l
0.. (Il0 I
u 0..
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.C: CIS Cll
.c: (/)
0 +-' ;::!
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I
5
4
3
4
5
4
6
1
6
9
1
3
2
6
5
0
9
1
4
0
11
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s::
•r-i
:>.
s::
Ill
(Il 0..
IS
0 0
z u
fS
{10 )
I
4
2
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4
l.
1
1
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1
0
3
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4
3
0
1
1
1
1
2
7
;
..
APPENDIX "E" {Cont inued }
22
I
many y ears ago wer e you aware
I How
of the impac t of comput ers on your
i
I
j ob ?
I
I
I In wha t por t i on
j y ou work?
!
I
I
23
of the U . S . do
l\TE
sw
!I
24
SE
How has the compu ter aff ected the
fr equency of contact wi th the
fol lowing?
P eers
Superiors
26
l Da oknowl
y ou requir e in your own pos i tion
edge of comput ers?
I In your
total exper ience was there
ever a r everting from a comput er
back to a manual sy s t em?
I
I
I
I
Yes
No
. .
9
185
132
49
7
35
264
60
33
2
91
76
27
4
18 1
138
29
16
I
•
I Rl3
N/C
Mor e
Less
N/C
Mor e
Less
N/C
Mor e
Less
Yes
No
1
I
I
I
•
I
R4
RS
R6 !
R7 I
R8
R9
Rl O
Rll
I Rl2
I
I
Subordina t es
25
0-1
2 -5
6-10
1 1+
not aware
NW
Rl4
Rl S
Rl6
Rl7
Rl8
Rl9
R20
R21
L27
L2 8
B26
B27
1
. I
I
1.69
142
34
129
141
102
59
19
97
70
11
92
74
16
128
69
120
235
63
1 15
186
1 13
43
182
130
25
I
6
3
1
4
5
1
8
2
0
47
24
8
43
29
6
36
33
9
I
I
'·
I
i
I
I
9
1
0
8
1
1
3
0
1
3
1
0
8
2
0
4
0
0
i
B IBLIOGRAPI-N
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1
·
Appl ey , Lawr ence A . , "The Futur e Cannot Be Left to Chance '' ,
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•
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I
; B ibby , Dause L . , Your Futur e in th e Electr oni c Comput er Fi eld ,
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•
Canning , Ri chard G . , El ectr onic Data Processing for Bus iness and
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Brothers Publishers , 1 954 .
115
116
Drucker , P eter F . , "Wha t Compu t ers Wil l Be Tel ling You " ,
ManagE>.ment R evi ew October 1 9 66 , New York : Amer ican Management
Ass ociat ion , 1 9 66 .
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Hill Book Company , Inc . , 1 9 55 .
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Management Process es : Case Studi es in Thr ee Leading Compani es ,
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: Fri elink , A . B . , Eco � omics of Automatic Data Processing ,
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Responsib i l i t i es , '�anagement Bulletin 3 6 , U . S . A . , Amer ican
Manag ement Associat ion , 1 9 63 .
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Cal ifornia Management Revi ew , Vol . IV , No . 4 , Los Angel es :
1 96 2
0
Greenwood , James W . , EDP : The Feasibili ty Studx ,
and Procedures Assoc ia t i on , 1 9 62 .
u.
S . A . : Sys tems
Gross , Mason W . , "The Role of Col l eges in the Devel opmen t of
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•
McCloskey , Dr . Jos eph F . , Living With Change , Los Angeles : P r o ­
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i
New York : Harper & Brothers Publi sher s , 1 9 5 0 .
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· · -
_
.V
•
U.
.
s . _. J�:!lr.�_au
.of _:the .Census_, . _Nat i 1 i tY. Sta ti s ti cs ,
. � 960 .
S . Bur eau of the C ensus , Statistical Abs tract of the
U.
s. ,
1 964 .
; - - - - - - , Automation Repor ts No .
. House .Inc . 1 9 65 .
,
37,
New York : Commer ce Cl earing