Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research Vol. 60, November 200 I, pp 863-867

A Glance at Operations Research, Cybernetics and Society

S Madan

Human R~source Development Group (DSTP), CSIR Complex, New Delhi 110012, India

Revised received 23 Jul y 200 I; accepted 28 August 200 I

The paper details the two eras of knowledge processing, one characterized by the application of operations research (OR)­whose domain is relatively static knowledge-and , the other, is characterized by cybernetics-that considers change in structure and has been defined as the science of control and communication. Currently the society is moving towards a knowledge based society in which quality environment plays an important rol e. The paper presents the two scenarios with considered examples. including that of environment, vis-a-vis society.

Introduction The forties saw the birth of two new fields:

cybernetics and operations research (OR)-one after the second world war and the other before, and during the war through Blackett' s circus of OR Though Blackett 's team stressed heavily on the systems approach in solving problems of military strategy with the applications of OR concentrating subconsciously on treatment of problems within the part of systems and sub­optimization. Only a few stalwarts like Ackoff and Stafford Beer have been trying to emphasize a systems or cybernetic approach to operational analysis.

When Blackett started the OR Group during the World War II as a problem solving aid to the Allied forces , he applied a systems view for most of the problems undertaken by his team. With proliferation of app lications of OR in industry, economy, social spheres, etc, in the post war period; many of the problems undertaken had excellent applications as well - but in many cases problems were solved for an isolated subsystem without having considered the impact of a bigger system. Too much emphasis was given to optimization, and with comparatively little on the problems of balanc ing of elements of the system, effects of mutual feedback within the elements, and feed forward effects, etc. A grea t advancement, no doubt , was made in the direction of modeling approach (particularly of small systems), study of mathemati ca l properties of a class of stochasti c systems, optimization (particularly within static systems), simul at ion techniques, and numerical analysis of various problems 1

•

To elobrate, consider any organization complex, composed of various elements, and none of which is independent of others, and each exerting a feedback effect on others, and through others on itself. Any realistic study of soc ial organization shou ld take this aspect into consideration. To have a generalized model, consider a complex with n individuals whose performance is indicated by control variables x

1, x

2, ... , x, with objective

functions ¢J/x). ¢J/x) ... , ¢J,/x,). Since, x1, x

2, . • . , x,

may be conflicting among themselves , it is o nl y appropriate to take the objective function of th e i'11

individual as

max¢; (x1 , ... ,x; , ... ,x, ~ i = l, ... ,n. . .. ( I) X;

In certain cases ' max' may be replace by ' min '. The overall objective function of the complex would be

... (2)

Seldom one comes across

Gcnerall) one finds

... (4 )

•864 J SCl IND RES VOL 60 NOVEMBER 2001

suggesting that if the organization had framed anobjective function (Eq. 2) by taking into considerationthe interdependence of various elements (x), the pay-off would be greater than the sum of the performancesof individuals working on their own. Such a situationcan occur for large number of problems in decisionmaking, including an industrial production complexcomprising various elements.

Operations Research vis-it-vis Cybernetics

The post war history of the development of OR was,therefore, one of developing tools for getting solutionsto the optimization problems met within the management;and many of these tools have been mathematical (e g,programming methods, techniques for dealing withproblems in inventory management, congestionproblems, replacements problems, etc). A phenomenaldevelopment in computation science helped in theexpeditious performance of numerical computationsinvolved in all types of OR work. Most of the problemsin OR have so for been approached as mechanicalproblems, and solutions have been derived mostly byapplying some of the new techniques developed on theinformation collected by a team of scientists.

A tremendous benefit accrued to industry, especiallyin the USA and UK by applying OR methods, but duringthe last decennium it has been increasingly felt that nolive problem in management can nearly be treated as amechanical problem completely devoid of human factors.To take stock of how best OR can be used in unison withhuman and other social factors in real life problems, oneis referred to the paper by Ghosaf .

Cybernetics has been defined in a number of waysby various scientists. Wiener) was the first noble laureateand a scientist who defined it "as the science of controland communications in the animal and man". andthereby, restricted its scope to the physical world.Stafford Beer' put it more broadly: "The new science ofcybernetics is the science of control and communications-whenever these occur in whatever kinds of systems". Thecore of cybernetic research is the discovery that there isunity of natural law in the way control must operate,whether the system controlled is animate or inanimate,

physical or biological. social or economic.

Klir and Valach" defined a cybernetic system S bythe relation

s= {X;R}, .. , (5)

where X is the set of input elements of the system, i e, X= [XI' x2 •••• , x.l, and R is the set of controls that definesthe rules and regulations of the system, which operateson the input set X, and thereby, a set of output Y= [Y,. y 2'

...• Ym] is obtained as a result offunctionfofthe systemas follows:

f(X;R)~ Y, ... (6)

whereas, a system can be classified under any of thefollowing three categories of a cybernetic system:

(i) A closed system, implying that there is noeffect of the environment on the system

(ii) An open system, implying that there is alwaysan effect of the environment on the system

(iii) A partially closed system, in which case theenvironment has an effect only on a subset ora few subsets within the system.

The set R that defines the rules and regulations of thesystem can be mathematically considered as a set ofcontrol elements, ie, set R = [R" R2 ••••• RJ. The natureof these elements is, therefore, responsible for the natureof the composite function f It is possible to considereach element tR; R2••••• R) or combination of two ormore elements as a subset or the set R.

For example, if one considers a city or state withpopulation congestion (e g, Delhi, the capital city ofIndia), then, based on social factors", the population atthe state level can be classified as:

(a) average level of persons getting food facility =XI

(b) average level of persons having housingfacility = x

2'

(c) average level of persons getting medicalfacility = XI'

(d) average level of persons getting educationalfacility =.

(e) average level of persons getting employmentfacility =X5'

Therefore the working system of Delhi can beexpressed in the form of (Eq. 6.)

1; (X; R') ~ t, ... (7)

where X = (XI'. X2" Xl'. x4'. X;') and R' = (RI'. R2', Ri', R4',

R;\ It is quite possible to define a subset R" of R', i e,.

\I\D r\\' , C;LA\:CE XI OPERATIO\,\L RFSEARCH, CYBER\L1ICS 8: S()(WIY

Yt••

I•) f

III[Outputs

I

Ih

Environment

Inputs (Xt)

Feedback

Figure I - A lccdhnck sysrcm : single loop

R' = (Rz' R,) c R such that R to be a set of industrialcontrol. That is, the set R" controls the population basedon industry within the state, Also, a bigger subset R =(R

I', Re, R,) c R' can be treated to be a set of industrial

control.

Let LIS consider the set R" = (R,', R .) to be the control- "set due to industry within the city/state that can cater for

the input set Y and consider the total population of thestate to be X. Then,

f' (X' R - R') Y,2' ~,

andj, (X: R - R) ~ Y

", (8)

(9)whereas the sets I( and 1(, I( and 1(' are additive, Onanalyzing the input - output response of the systems,Hqn 7, 8 and <), if one concludes that the workings of thesystem, Eq. 8 or l) is far better to cater fur the smallerpopulation X or X" than X from the point of view th.uthe industrial control docs not exist ill the city/state, Sucha practice, therefore, calls for the industry to be installedoutside the city not within the city as in the case of Delhi,In other words, the population congestion is controlledhy the bchuvioral control set I( - I( or I( - H whichinteracts wit}: the srarc population <It the level ,Y or Xinstead PI' X", This Illay improve the social and behavioralfactors affecting Delhi in the following \\,avs:

(i ) Less housing needed to cater for the populationat the level X or ).; ,

(ii I Low housing rent due to lesser population Xor Y,

(iii) Cost of land and sale of houses go down,

(iv) Road maintenance cost is projected lcsx thanbefore,

(v) Water scarcity is controlled due to availabilityof drinking water to the population level X orY' thus declaring X to be uncontrollable lc ve lof state,

(vi) Finally, social problems can be met adequatelyso far the availability and use of resources arcconcerned, and thereby a quality environmentis generated in the state, and so on.

The benefits therefore derived from the city due tostructural changes can he used to establish the industryoutside cit y/st.uc for the social development andinstallation of industry, The environment of Delhi wouldhe much safer from those industries causing pollutionand congestion problems within the city,

Environment vis-a-vis Society

Consider here that class of svsteJl1S III which theenvironment is always a part or the whole thus havingits effects on the system, The inputs to the syslL'lll at ;111\

time I are processed by functions of the system and [cdhack into the system that affects the inputs to the systemat time 1+ I, A feedback system can he described hy theFigure I wherein environment IS affecting the inputs X,and the inputs arc being regulated by the Iunctionj andthereby the outputs V, arc being fed back mto the system,

866 J SCI IND RES VOL 60 NOVEMBER 2001

The feedback functionl. 6 is termed as h, andmathematically, we have Yt =!(Xt) , whereas h (Y) affectsthe inputs to the system Xt+1 at time t+I.

The nature of the environment in Figure Ia dependson and varies with system. Looking at the diagram, itneeds to understand the system wherein the environmentis 'quality oriented' that gives rise to positive feedbackinto the system whereas the environmental quality canbe low, medium, or high.

Quality must lead to quality orientation process thatis responsible to a great extent for the public awarenessof the acceptance and non-acceptance of the goods/products that do not require cost. The publicconsciousness that can be awoken and therebymaintained within a quality environment. The qualityenvironment thus generates the ability for the acceptance/non-acceptance of the goods/products available in themarket. One can conclude that acceptance would be onlyfor the quality products whereas the non-acceptance ofproducts can lead to competition in the market that wouldlook for the quality demand of the customers and hencethe process of commercialization of products would racefor the quality in all respect, from all directions.

The above concept is a logical acceptance of thefeedback system. In practice, it is found that the qualityof life is always sustained by quality in environment thatgives satisfaction to the people and provides a healthylife and thereby the role of money becomes minor inoperation of life. One can attain quality in life in allrespect, from all directions in a quality environment.

It has however, become the tendency of each andevery society/system to spend more and more to achievesatisfaction and consume the quality for better healthwhile this can be very well maintained by creating aquality environment. The quality in environment is,therefore, a cybernetic control about which the article isconcerned.

One can be, therefore, sure of low values of crimeand thereby less involvement in corruption practices,once the quality in the environment prevails. Is itvaluable? If such a situation of environment can prevailthen it is certain to have higher level of developmentthat can be understood by the term 'quality development'or 'quality in development' which implies enhancementin the development process. Here, the environment doesnot imply the quality of air or water, but it is amathematical entity:

If 11 is the entire (conceivable) space, and S = {X; R }the relevant system, in which X is the set of variables, Rthe relationship set, then I1IS is the outer environment.For example, in a metropolis like Delhi registering apopulation increase about 30 per cent per 10 y, increasein pollution, congestion, accidents and unemploymentamong youth are natural corollaries. Accordinglycorrective measures have to be adopted. For example,Singapore tries to keep the number of cars in streetswithin limits by imposing punitive tax on intending buyerof cars; Delhi or Mumbai does not have such plans.Problems in protection of environment need a systemsapproach in which quality in environment plays animportant role.

The development referred here is not dependent oneconomy that leads to economic development but it isconsidered as the overall development or the integrateddevelopment. The development process itself would,therefore, receive a higher and higher value in the cycleof time till a saturation level or limiting stage inmathematical term is attained. It is implied from theFigure I a that the development at time t as such wouldbe fed back into the system that would have an effect onthe development at the next epoch of time. A feedbackof the development process at time t+ I thus reactingwithin the environment leading to the varying effects onthe inputs to system at time t+ I. The environment is,therefore, a self-regulatory and controlled process in thecybernetics sense, and amid the positive feedback candefinitely lead to the quality in environment.

An undesirable and destructive feedback situationmay exist in the near future, such as impact of anincreasing scale of Technology (and previously balanced)environment. What is required is the sustainabletechnology for development of a nation. On the otherhand, a system where one can easily get instability is asystem of alternators (alternating generators). If one hasswitched in an alternator at a very high wrongly phasedsystem, the system will blow up.

The quality environment is, therefore, required inmost of the developing societies/ countries those arelacking in practice of cybernetic principles. Thecybernetic understanding of the environmental processcan save the people from mental tension, pollution, andnight crimes, otherwise, heart diseases and lungs

MADAN: GLA CE AT OPERATIONAL RESEARC H, CYB ERNETICS & SOCIETY X67

problems along with brain hamberage problems can enl arge and thus lead to a hippie society.

It is very well concluded, therefore, that the qu ality environment is an asset or a control in cy berneti cs language for the overall development of each and every society or system in general.

References

Ghosal A, Applied Cybernetics: Its Relevance to Operations Research (Gordon and Breach Publishers, New York), 1978.

2 Ghosal A, Operati ons Research in Soc ial Sciences . .I Sci lnd Res, 2!! ( 1969) 75-!lO.

3 Wiener N. Cvbernetics: Cont rol and Co11utwnication intht· A nimal and the Ma chin e, 2'"1 Edi tio n (MI T Pres s. Cambridge) 196 1.

4 BeerS , Decision and Control. (John Wi ley. New York ) I %6.

5 Klir J and Yalach M, Cybernetic ModelinR (l!l i!Te Books. London) 1965.

6 Madan S, Cyberneti cs of Development Process: SPECT Sys tem Approach. Kybernetes. 24 (2) ( 1995) 60-66.