personal finance This might be said to correspond to programming in batch production. The various reaction times of the successive processes through which the feed stock goes will decide the vessel capacities, pump sizes, and pipe dimensions in a way closely analogous to the scheduling in an engineering works. The valves controlling the flow of the various reagents might be likened to the clerical procedures of stock control and ordering. The foregoing describes the main stream of actual manufacture, but there are important ancillary matters which must also be considered. For example, in the determination of the work content of the various items which must be manufactured, the technique of work study has enabled almost scientific accuracy to be achieved, so that a trained work study department is a very necessary adjunct to a manufacturing process employing labour. The type of management decision which arises in the control of production includes extraordinarily difficult problems, in which a large number of interacting variables has to be considered, and the technique of Operational Research has been developed to simplify the solution of this type of problem. To take a mundane example : a computer has been used most successfully to obtain the most economical combination of the various ingredients used in cattlecake manufacture. The effect on the total cost of marginally varying the cost of one of the ingredients can be studied, and a balanced ingredient and cost composition can thus be developed. Such a study, if carried out by normal methods, would involve many hours of laborious mathematical analysis. The use of Operational Research techniques need not be restricted to the large process industries. Similar methods can be used as a basis for management decisions in all sizes of business. For the process of manufacture to proceed at all, there must be premises, plant, and services and they must be maintained in good working order. The choice of a suitable site must be related to the availability of labour, materials, transport, and services, and consideration must be given to room for possible expansion, the disposal of waste products, and the provision of fire and emergency services. The selection and design of the most suitable buildings must of course be governed by the type of product and the scale of production, as indeed must be the internal layout of the building. This becomes a major management preoccupation in a plant of any size. с The maintenance of existing facilities requires careful planning to ensure that the plant is not being run down or too much money being spent in keeping it in unnecessarily good condition. The policy for plant replacement thus requires the greatest management attention. Considerable thought has been devoted in America in recent years to devising methods by which the various products competing for available capital may be ranked in order of merit such a study has been given the glamorous name of Business Investment Analysis. personal finance