Role of Hard Systems

Hard Systems prevalent way of viewing world.
Operational Research (OR) developed in 1940s, during World War 2 by Allied forces. Quantitative techniques and incorporation of logistics.
Used to plan and deploy resources in Normandy beach landing.
Also used in Enigma project – German submarine code cracking.
Hard systems approach systematically worked through options.
Rapid expansion of use of computers in 1950s based on hard systems approach.
Hard systems lead into Management By Objectives concept – measure performance with specific indicators.
Approach incorporated into planning and production systems, evolved into Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
Examples of hard systems:

• data processing systems
• airplanes
• mobile phones
• the Internet