Operational Control

Abstract

During the operational phase of a programme—the period which we have denoted by (t ₀ , t ₁ )—the Organisation which is attempting to execute it is likely to be subjected to internal and external influences which tend to perturb it. Men may become ill or disaffected, machines may experience mechanical failures, the supply of materials may be disrupted, or the rate of transactions with the environment may surge or temporarily fall off. Whether the programme must be restored following perturbations or whether it must be revised following a shift in transaction rates, appropriate action decisions must be quickly taken. We shall call such decisions, made at one time to take effect at once or in the immediate future, operational control decisions. Such decisions are often the responsibility of controllers in the operational systems of an Organisation. In some instances however, they may be reserved to a central, coordinating and control authority associated with the GCS. Organisations that depend upon programmes which integrate their various parts are impelled towards centralisation of much operational decision-making, and this creates requirements for special and elaborate types of management information systems. We shall look into this presently. Meanwhile, to illustrate the concept of operational control decisions in relation to that of a programme an example may be conveniently introduced.