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An R & D planning and control servosystem: A case study*
Author(s) -
Souder William E.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
randd management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.253
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1467-9310
pISSN - 0033-6807
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9310.1972.tb00991.x
Subject(s) - operations research , control (management) , scheduling (production processes) , computer science , operations management , project planning , selection (genetic algorithm) , dynamic programming , engineering , project management , systems engineering , artificial intelligence , algorithm
This paper describes a planning and control system (PACS) to aid R & D decision‐making which has been developed and used at the Monsanto Company, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A. The planning model portion of the integrated system is a two‐dimensional dynamic programming resource allocation algorithm which performs project selection, budgeting and scheduling. Behavioral parameters that can be used to simulate certain organizational factors are included in the planning model. The control model portion of the integrated system develops cost‐effectiveness measures of variances between actual and planned performances for ongoing projects over time, which provide early warnings of pending project failures and guide control action. Applications of the system at Monsanto indicate that it significantly aids the development of satisfactory organizational decisions and also provides a laboratory for pretesting decisions.