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IE 398 Systems Thinking

Department of Industrial Engineering

METU - February 2010

a course on the methods and practice of OR/IE

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• instructors: Çağlar Güven, Sinan Kayalıgil

• assistants: Büşra Atamer, Bilge Çelik

• textbook: Management Science

Decision making through systems thinkingHG Dällenbach & DC McNicklePalgrave 2005

• course site https://online.metu.edu.tr/

lecture files, extra material etc.

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course objective• systems thinking is what makes OR/IE

different from other engineering and management disciplines

• success in OR/IE will not be possible without ST

• the aim of this course is achieving competency and understanding of systemic inquiry by studying systems thinking that complements disciplinary inquiry and quantitative analysis in order to enable effective application of IE knowledge

Mission of the METU/IE Department

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Mission The IE Department studies organised human activity and educates engineers capable of creating value in socio-technical systems. Our work is founded on critical reason and systems thinking and on strong quantitative analysis. Our approach emphasizes identifying and structuring issues and formulating problems, as much as it seeks to develop and implement effective courses of action.

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justification for the course• IE addresses sociotechnical issues in

human organisations that involve choice and trade-offs that are difficult to resolve

• IE aims to bring the power of abstraction and analysis to deal with such trade-offs so that managerial action can produce improvement

• this aim generates dual objectives in IE education: (i) acquiring adequate command of quantitative analysis and mathematical modelling, and (ii) building systems skills needed to put this knowledge into practice

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• systems thinking lays the groundwork for IE practice; it is a prerequisite for making sense of human activity, for structuring issues and for defining problems

• without a good conception of systems, the link from quantitative analysis to management practice will not be complete; designs will not work out as planned and improvements will fail to materialise.

• this course addresses systems thinking and systems theory in a formal and systematic treatment

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• systems thinking has emerged as a significant mode of inquiry that contains and complements disciplinary thinking, ie. traditional scientific thinking in such areas as biology, physics, management and OR

• within the OR tradition it has developed its conceptions to such a degree that an adequate coverage is not possible without dedicated courses

• attempts to teach systems thinking by dispersing systems ideas throughout the curriculum does not work very well; it also weakens disciplinary content

• this course seeks to remove the deficiency in the systems foundation of the IE curriculum

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scope of the course

• the literature on ST is very extensive and scattered

• ST is still evolving and changing• it rests on advanced concepts and constructs

from philosophy and social theory • most of it cannot be covered in an introductory

course• this course is introductory and concerned with ST

in so far as it supports the practice of OR/IE• it is more on methodology than on theory• tools and techniques supporting applications will

be emphasised

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conduct and evaluation• lectures

– the textbook to be followed as far as possible– extra material included in slides and at the website – advance preparation and attendance required

• evaluation– assignments

• term project (15%)• quizzes and classwork (20%)

– midterm examinations: (35%)

– final examination (30%)

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short syllabus• Introduction• Problem Situation• Systems• Complexity• System Models• Hard OR• Costs• Soft OR Methods• Soft Systems Methodology-1• Soft Systems Methodology-2• Soft System Case Studies

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LECTURES

BOOK CHAPTERS & REFERENCES

ARTICLES ASSIGNED FOR READING

0+1: Introduction 1+2 Ackoff:Our changing concept of the world

2: Problem Situation 4

3: Systems 3

Kaufmann: Systems One: An introduction to systems thinking (chapters 1-3)

4: Complexity

lecture notes Baranger: Chaos,complexity and entropy Seel: Complexity and OD

5: System Models 5

6: Hard OR 6 6

7: Costs

9

8: Soft OR Methods 7

Ackoff: Systems thinking & thinking systems

9: Soft Systems Methodology-1 Checkland

lecture Proceedings of ICE : Soft systems: a fresh perspective for project management

10: Soft Systems Methodology-2 Checkland

lecture Connell : Evaluating soft OR

Soft System Case Studies to be announced

TEXT CHAPTERS, REFERENCES, READING MATERIAL

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other books• Pidd, M.,Tools for thinking, Wiley

2003• Pidd, M., Systems modelling, Wiley

2004• Yolles, M., Management Systems,

Pitman 1999• Checkland, P. & J. Scholes, Soft

Systems Methodology in Action, Wiley 1990