De strijd tussen orde en wanorde, een optimumprobleem *

Summary Order against disorder, an optimum problem The whole of the production systems, presenting the social production apparatus, is not a chaotic, undifferentiated conglomerate, but shows a well‐defined structure. Internally, too, production systems display the most varied forms of differentiation. This organization presents many advantages, but at the same time involves the need for coordination, i.e. the framing of equilibrated plans, in which the aims of the different sections are coordinated with the total purpose and in which the limitations of the available means are taken into account. Operational Research has arisen from the need for coordination, specially in those cases where phenomena are complex. The function and the place of an operational research department in a concern can be learned about from Henry Fayol's study on the management of a concern. The operational research department has a general staff function, directly subordinate to the supreme management, without any power to make decisions. The use of mathematical techniques will never result automatically in the right decisions. The quality of a model is determined by efficiency considerations. In each case the additional accuracy has to be weighed against the additional advantages. On economic considerations some measure of „disorder” has to be accepted. The determination of the optimum quality of an O.R. model forms a problem which in practice can only be solved by the intuition of the O.R. specialist.