Relevance of Quantitative Methods in Decison Making
ASSIGNMENT QUESTION:
‘‘A Trend in Contemporary Time is the Increasing Need to Comprehend Basic Quantitative Methodology and its Language as a Tool for Decision Analysis’’ Prof J.A. Fabayo. Do You Agree?
ANSWER:
Background A person managing a production unit for instance, a factory, a farm or even a kitchen has to coordinate men, machines and money against several constraints like time, cost and space in order to achieve the organization’s objectives in an efficient and effective manner. He therefore has to analyze the situation on a continuous basis, determine the objectives and identify the best options from the set of available alternatives, then, implement, coordinate, evaluate and control the situation continuously in order to achieve these objectives. This process is otherwise known as Decision Analysis. Definitions Decision can simply be defined as a choice made between alternative courses of action in a situation of uncertainty. It can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection and commitment of resources to a specific course of action among several alternative in order to achieve set goals and objectives Quantitative techniques on the other hand are those statistical and programming methods, which help decision makers to solve many problems, especially those that have to do with business and industry. It refers to those techniques that provide the decision makers with systematic and powerful means of analysis based on quantitative data, in order to achieve predetermined goals. These techniques involve the use language represented by numbers, symbols, mathematical expressions, and other element of quantities and serve as supplement to the judgment and intuition of the decision makers. Evolution While the science of mathematics is probably as old as the human society, the utility of quantitative techniques has been realized long ago. The evolution of industrial engineering and
‘‘A Trend in Contemporary Time is the Increasing Need to Comprehend Basic Quantitative Methodology and its Language as a Tool for Decision Analysis’’ Prof J.A. Fabayo. Do You Agree?
ANSWER:
Background A person managing a production unit for instance, a factory, a farm or even a kitchen has to coordinate men, machines and money against several constraints like time, cost and space in order to achieve the organization’s objectives in an efficient and effective manner. He therefore has to analyze the situation on a continuous basis, determine the objectives and identify the best options from the set of available alternatives, then, implement, coordinate, evaluate and control the situation continuously in order to achieve these objectives. This process is otherwise known as Decision Analysis. Definitions Decision can simply be defined as a choice made between alternative courses of action in a situation of uncertainty. It can be regarded as the mental processes (cognitive process) resulting in the selection and commitment of resources to a specific course of action among several alternative in order to achieve set goals and objectives Quantitative techniques on the other hand are those statistical and programming methods, which help decision makers to solve many problems, especially those that have to do with business and industry. It refers to those techniques that provide the decision makers with systematic and powerful means of analysis based on quantitative data, in order to achieve predetermined goals. These techniques involve the use language represented by numbers, symbols, mathematical expressions, and other element of quantities and serve as supplement to the judgment and intuition of the decision makers. Evolution While the science of mathematics is probably as old as the human society, the utility of quantitative techniques has been realized long ago. The evolution of industrial engineering and