The traditional idea of inspecting quality into products is no longer a viable approach to quality control. Finally, we will consider the operations research approach. This is a quantitative modelling approach which relies on the development and analysis of mathematical models of operations. We define such models as simplified representations of reality. By using the calculation power of computers, we can incorporate many complex features in our models, and still derive solutions.
Most quantitative models assume economic criteria for evaluation.
Because some managerial tasks are non-economic, we often must look to other criteria of success. Particularly in environments in which profit is not the purpose of the organization, we still must manage. In these cases, our measure of success is the degree to which we accomplish the objectives of the organization. We can define this as effectiveness. Profit oriented environments are concerned with objectives which relate to achieving as much output with a minimum amount of resources as possible.