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Quantitative Techniques-II



                      Notes             The marketing of the product was not a problem because customers were, for the large
                                         part, personally known to the owner of the business. There was hardly any competition in
                                         the business.
                                        Test marketing of the product was not needed because the owner used to know the choice
                                         and requirement of the customers just by personal interaction.

                                        The manager (also the owner) also used to work with his workers at the shop floor. He
                                         knew all of them personally as the number were small. This reduced the need for keeping
                                         personal data.

                                        The progress of the work was being made daily at the work centre itself. Thus production
                                         records were not needed.

                                        Any facts the owner needed could be learnt direct from observation and most of what he
                                         required was known to him.
                                    Now, in the  face of increasing complexity in business and industry, intuition alone  has no place
                                    in decision-making because  basing a decision on intuition becomes  highly questionable when
                                    the decision involves the choice among several courses of action each  of which can achieve
                                    several  management objectives simultaneously.
                                    Hence there is a need for training people who can manage a system both efficiently and creatively.

                                    1.1 Quantitative Decision-making and its Overview

                                    Quantitative techniques have made valuable contribution towards arriving at an effective
                                    decision  in  various  functional  areas  of  management-marketing,  finance,  production  and
                                    personnel. Today, these techniques are also widely used in regional planning, transportation,
                                    public health, communication, military, agriculture, etc.
                                    Quantitative techniques are being used extensively as an aid in business decision making due to
                                    following reasons:
                                        Complexity of today’s managerial activities which involve constant analysis of existing
                                         situation, setting objectives, seeking alternatives, implementing, coordinating, controlling
                                         and evaluating the decision made.
                                        Availability of different types of tools for quantitative analysis of complex managerial
                                         problems.

                                        Availability of high speed computers to apply quantitative techniques (or models) to real
                                         life problems in all types of organizations such as business, industry, military, health, and
                                         so on. Computers have played an important role in arriving at the optimal solution of
                                         complex managerial problems both in terms of time and cost.

                                    In spite of these reasons, the quantitative approach, however, does not totally eliminate the
                                    scope of qualitative or judgment ability of the decision-maker. Of course, these techniques
                                    complement the experience and knowledge of decision maker in decision-making.


                                    Self Assessment

                                    Fill in the blanks:
                                    1.   …………………are also widely used in regional planning, transportation, public health,
                                         communication, military, agriculture, etc.







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