Sl'ANDAROFORMN0.114 REF ID:A70324 

. ·office Memorandum . UNITED sTATEs GovERNMENT 

TO : Mr. w. F. Friedman DATB: 8 April 1955 

FROM : Mr. A. B. Clark 

. ' 

SUBJECT: TaJ.k Given at IRE Convention 

You JD.8.7 be interested in the attached which is a slight~ revised edition 

of a talk which I presented before the IRE on March 22. The occasion was a 

panel discussion of the subject - "Operations Research a Tool of Management" 1 

chairmaned . by Mr. C. M. Jansk7, Jr. . 

. . . It occurs to me that this might be appropriate for an article in the proposed NSA Technical Journal., which I understand you are in the process of 

creating. 

Incl: 

· Cy of "The Scientific Enterpriser" 

@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 11-08-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a ' . .·. . , t. ~· . . . 
''\ 

/ 

I 

REF ID:A70324 

4 April 1955 

THI.\ SCIENTIFIC ball'lW'RISER 

Our genial Chair.man, lir. Jansky', bas asked t.b:l.s question: 

"Are terms such as •operations research' 1 •operational research•, 

•operations analysis•, •operations eval:ua.tion', •57st.ems engineering', •tc., S)'Jl01l1Jnous? It not, ho1f should 1'18 di.rterentia.te between them?" 

It does not seem to me that these terms are B1fl0f\VJOOUS,, the 

first .tour tems being much na1'"'1"011mr than the last,, which is "Systems 

Engineering" • "System.& Engineering" is a. very broad t.erm. meaning ma.n;v 

things to different people. A dif.terent title ba.s,, therefore,, been 

chosen .tor JJl1' remarks. "The Developnent Planner,n ltOuld perhaps have 

been equal.q appropriate but "Wa.8 not chosen because it did not emphasize 

the very important idea ot "enterprise11 • 

The job of the 11Scientitic Enterpriser", or group ot Scientific 

Enterprisers,, is easiq de.tined. In the ci'ril:!an world, it is simpq 

to J:l&lce plans for increasing protits. In the military \crld,, it ia 

to make plans tor increasing the destruction which we wish to intlict 

on our exiemies,, wbil.e at. the same time keeping our own expenditures 

in men and materials at a nd.nimun. So I believe that the subject tits 

wll both to peace and war. 

In order to achieve success, the Scientific Bnterpriser needs 

t.m essential ingredients. 

One~ an exceedingly good wnerstanling of the i'ie1d of 

operations to wldch hie plans a.re to be applied. 

'l'l«>.t an :imaginative understanding ot the possibilities 

af'f'orded by advances in science. 

Since the "Scientitic Jmterpriser" cannot bo expect.ed to encompass all of this understandiQg bim.selt,, he must have tree access to 

other scientists working in the fields c4 interest to his plans. 

Thus, these other scientists will add their own dreams ot future 

possibilities to h.1& own. 

With these two essential ingredients in hand; ideas will, in 

maz:w cases, be forthcoming almost automa.ticaJ.lT. The 11Scienti.tie 

Jmterpriser" will naturally originate sane ot these ideas. However,, 

he should encourage the eeneration ot ideas by others, the users 

in pa.rt.icular.. He should take pa.ins to g1. ve all ideas equa.1 "Weight, 

whatever tbeir sotJree. In other words,, be should have no "pr:l.de o:t 

authorship" with respect to ideas. 
REF ID:A70324 

As to ~he making of pl.ans, I caii auggest no .tixecl pattern. Sometimes, ai1d partieular].y so if the field. in which the plan is to be 

applied l'iaa not al.ready been well plowed over by planners a.bead of him, 

the essentials of' a good pl.an may be imclediately' ev.Ldent. Then mrk on 

a more detailed plan can immediately proceed. 

In general. however,, it u1ll be found that gaps in understanding 

exist uhi~h must be tilled in before even.the outline of a good plan 

can be produced. 

Maybe there is e. gap in kmW.edge ol the .t1e1d ot operationso 

A frequently encounterod gap is knowledge ol 11user preterence11 • 'rhe 

new plan mA1' aim to produce a product. ld. th which the user is untamiU.ar. 

Then special trials are necessary to .find out it the new product would 

real.]¥ serve him well. 

Or the gap ixi knowledge may 1:1.e somewhere in the Pl:\V'&ical. l«>r1d. 

Then a special. research or devel.opnent exploration will be imicated. 

Lest this discussion become too abstract,, 1 will give you illustrations,, trom ~ past experience, ot bow ga.ps in understanding have been 

tilled in. 

1.. \Jhen nationwide customer dialir>a was proposed, one requirement was that the customer must dia.1. ten dig.its. ~lould he like t.bis? 

Would be make too many mistakes? To answer these questions a big trial 

was made at Er:igl.ewood. ~ew Jersey in 1951. This showed that the 

customers ~ liked this service and really made fetf mistakes. So 

the grand plan for natiomd.d.e d1aling proceeded. 

2. When the application ot telephone carrier to fine wire 

cables was first proposed back :Ln l92S, it was evident that this l«>ul.d 

iniiolve thousands or vacum tubes in te.nder:i with amplltiers siaced 

only about l 7 miles apart. Would the cunulati.w distortion int.rod.uced 

by' these vacuum tubes present a serious prob1em and.Jiii if so,, how could 

it be overcome? 

This 1ed to a trial within the laboratories of a. lot ot 

vacum tubes in cascade which demonstrated that the distortion would 

mt be serious .. 

Another question raised at that time lGS whether adeqtJate 

stability ot a carrier system,, eeveral thousands or miles long ard tdth 

hundreds ot amplifiers in tandea could be achieved,, in spite of the 

large transmission variations to be expected in the conductors due to 

temperature changes and t.he large number ot am.plltiers in tandem,, in 

which changes in amplitica.tion were ant.icipated due to aging ot tubes 

and variations in power supply voltages. 
REF ID:A70324 

Innr*ions wre soon .torthcoming to take ca.re ot these 

things. ~ :t.mrention o£ the nega.Uve feed-back principle wnt a long 

W8.7 toward el:i.lrdnating the ampliticat.ion variations. The invention of 

eewraJ. f'orms of automatic transmission regulators took care o£ the 

vario.tions in the liiles am o! the small -varia.t1ona remaining 1n the 

amplit:lers. 

'l'hua these several gaps were tilled in and the pl.an tor 

applying carrier to tine wire cables could proceed .. 

I wills~ just a tew more words about the makibg ot plans after 

the gaps in understanding have been tilled in •. 

I do mt beliew that it is possible to set. up a method o.t planning 

which can b8 applied, slavishly, as routine applicable in all situa:tions. 

Some plans o£fer large am evident possibilities ot great savings. 

Under such circur..'lStances, precision in estimates ot savings to detel'mine 

the \«:>rthwbileness ot the project are unnecesaar.r. Also it is unnecessary 

to go into much detail in the planning. 

In fields which have alre~ reached a high state of dewlopn.ent,, 

however, a much more detailed. pl.an is necessary and a. much more accurate 

cost st'Ud1', to detem.ine the probable worthwhileness of the project. 

Where a deta.iled. plan is necessa.J.7, close cooperation with both 

~ 

dewlopnent engineers and researchers is a prime requirement. A new plan 

involves an aseemb1age ot elements. Some of' these ~ alrea.CIJ' 

exist as concrete things while others exist only' in the ima.gi nation or the 

planner. 

The developnent engirJeers and research men can halp a J.ot in assessing 

the possibilities- sometimes in estimating perto:rmaxJCe characteristics ot 

the imagined element and sometimes, simp].311 in estimating what its cost is 

likely to be. It there is great uncertainty as to whether one ot the :Imagined 

elements can in :ta.ct be created.. some explorato1"3" research ~ be necessary. 

In some cases the ima.g:l.ned element may occupy so prominent a. place in the 

system that its cost will be control l :Ing. Then it mq be necess8.17 to 

actual.l.1' build a nr:>del. ot the proposed new elemeD't to better assess its 

probable cost,,, 

Fina.l Jy" after the list o£ nq,uired elements tor the plan is compl.ete 

and the opa:ro.ting cba.racter:ist.ics and probable cost ~ each element has 

been obtained or estimated,, it is a straightf'orward matter to estimate the 

over-all perfo:r.mance and cost ot the whol.e system.. Then, these costs a.re 

compared ld.th the benefits to be obtai.Md. Thus an assessment is made of 

the "Wrt.bwh:Uemss of the project.. 

Right here, il' he has not been forehamed., the planner may bump into 

an ~red question as to whether or not the new qstem. t.ould reaJ17 

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• . .. REF ID:A70324 

serve the user 1•ll. tlowever, this l«>uld be a poor time to run into this 

question of 'Wl81." acceptance~ because an adverse answer might wrack the 

who1e plmi. 

It will be assumed., theretora, that user preterence studies will. 

have al.read;r been made, using human 11guinea pigs" and some sort or d'l.1DID1' 

51'Stem whose owr-all. partormance aimulated that ot the system envisaged 

:1n the plan. 

Jmm. if some user preference studies have been made,, it. is wsuall;r 

desirable to construct a. "bre~board model.11 of the new s.rst• and tr.r its pe~ormance on a.ct.uel. users aa: the last step in planning, preparatol'J' to 

the init.i.ation of developnent tor manufacture. 

I am sure tba.t all ~ these mceasa.rr steps in plamling will eound. 

W1"¥ simple as in tact thq are. In m:y experience, the major di.t.t1culties 

will be found in obta:ln:5 ng the two essential ingredients al.re~ mentioned, 

llhich must be 1n band be.tore a.n e.ttectiw job ot plaml.ing can nen be 

started. Good tmderstanding ol the .tiel.d ot op1Jra:t.ions wherein the plan 

is to be applied i8 om ot the&e. The other is pos&ession ot a good. 

imaginative understo.nding o£ the possibilities reasonable to expect from 

advances in science. 

'l'o create a UoUP 0£ 1nd1'Viduals possessing theoe tt1e> essential 

ingredients is the real.17 tough job. h'videntq this group must be 

composed of gifted people. They should al.so possess the qualities oE 

selt-effacement,, tact, and. s.vmpathetic understanding. 

In closing I muld like to add the thought that "The Sciontif'ic 

Enterpriser" is not a rece~ created t)'Jle o£ human being. Rather, 

he is tmueams ot l19&1"B old. To Ulustra.te,, Archimedes was auch a 

man. History tells us that, about 200 yaara before Christ, he devised 

plans tor and bad constructed engines ot Wa.r which terr:ttied the Romans. 

What is perhaps new a.bout "The Scientit1c Enterpriser11 or "Development Pl.amJer" is tba.t he ha.s become a specialist or group ot specialists. 

He is most eatJi.q identitiable in an in8titut1on large enough to ha.ve a 

separate organization dewted to research and devel.opnent. 

A. D. CLARK 

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