QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES – INTRODUCTION

Scientific methods have helped mankind in innumerable ways and brought about many changes in our lives enabling us to pursue an ample number of activities. It is analyzed that whenever some national crisis, emerges due to the impact of political, social, economic or cultural factors the talents from all walks of life amalgamate together to overcome the situation and rectify the problem. In this chapter we will see how the quantitative techniques had facilitated the organization in solving complex problems on time with greater accuracy.

The historical development aids the process of managerial decision-making and better allocation of business resources. The methodology helps us in studying the scientific methods with respect to phenomenon connected with human behavior like formulating the problem, defining decision variable and constraints, developing a suitable model, acquiring the input data, solving the model, validating the model, implementing the results. The major advantage of mathematical model is that it facilitates the process of decision making in a faster and accurate manner.

As managerial activities have become complex, right decisions have to be made to avoid heavy losses. Whether it is a manufacturing unit, or a service organization, the resources have to be utilized to its maximum in an efficient manner. Decision making can not be made on a trial-and-error basis or by using a thumb rule approach in this uncertainty clouded and rapidly changing world.

So there arises a greater need for applying scientific methods to decision-making to increase the probability of coming up with good decisions. Quantitative Technique is a scientific approach to managerial decision-making which would help the organization in solving complex problems with greater accuracy in the most cost and time effective way. Quantitative techniques in decision making help us analyze decision alternatives in a rational way that enables us to choose a solution that increases the likelihood of meeting defined success criteria.

Frederick Winslow Taylor is credited with the initial development of scientific management techniques. The scientific management principle developed by him during the early nineteen hundreds, laid the basis to the study of managerial problems. He developed his theory emphasizing the new philosophy of management responsibility for planning and supervision and formulating of rules, formulae, etc. in connection with labor and machine techniques, which would result in lower cost to the employer and a higher return to labor.

Taylor's chief contribution to the development of management theory was an application of scientific method to problems of management. His emphasis on the study of management from the point of view of shop management led to the overlooking of "the more general aspects of management, particularly in the United States and Great Britain."

In addition, several management science techniques were further developed during World War II.

World War II posed many military, strategic, logistic, and tactical problems. Operations research teams of engineers, mathematicians, and statisticians were developed to use the scientific method to find solutions for many of these problems. The usefulness of the Quantitative Technique was evidenced by a steep growth in the application of scientific management in decision-making in various fields of engineering and management. At present, in any organization, whether a manufacturing concern or service industry, Quantitative Techniques and analysis are used by managers in making decisions scientifically.