E60-383 Sloan School of ManagementMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
MIT System Dynamics Group |
E60-383 Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
The System Dynamics Group was founded in the early 1960s by Professor Jay W. Forrester at MIT. At that time, he began applying what he had learned about systems during his work in electrical engineering to every day kinds of systems. What makes using system dynamics different from other approaches to studying complex systems is the use of feedback loops. Stocks and flows help describe how a system is connected by feedback loops which create the nonlinearity found so frequently in modern day problems. Computers software is used to simulate a system dynamics model of the situation being studied. Running "what if" simulations to test certain policies on such a model can greatly aid in understanding how the system changes over time.
Professor John D. Sterman is the director of the System Dynamics Group. The Group has three main areas of research at this time.
The National Model Project strives for a better understanding of how the U.S. economy works. The Group uses the System Dynamics National Model which generates behavior as observed in an actual economy for the interactions of local structures and decision-making policies, building a bridge that joins microstructure with macrobehavior. Corporations and private individuals fund this research.
The System Dynamics in Education Project was established in 1990. Writing the Road Maps series is the main area of activity. Road Maps is a "do it yourself" workbook for learning system dynamics which is now available online. Many books and thousands of papers cover the field of system dynamics. With all of these resources available, it is difficult to know where to begin learning about system dynamics. Besides selected system dynamics papers, Road Maps uses modeling exercises (for STELLA II) to provide a way of learning about the principles of system dynamics.
With funding from an NSF grant, the Group also studies the Improvement Paradox: Designing Sustainable Quality Improvement Programs. Many firms abandon total quality programs due to lack of perceived impact on profitability, even after they experience a significant increase in performance. Through the development of formal models and original case histories, the Group seeks to identify the critical interactions between quality programs and other organizational structures. Ultimately, models and case histories will provide the basis for simulation microworlds where managers can experiment with policies for successful improvement without risk, accelerating individual and organizational learning. Four firms have joined as partners in the total quality project.
This 32 page document includes working papers, dissertations and management flight simulators that are available for purchase through the mail. It is in pdf which is readable with the Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you need instructions on how to set it up, you can visit the Adobe site or read our help page.
The Beer Distribution Game web site (maintained by the Center for Organizational Learning) contains instructions for playing the beer game. The beer game is an interactive simulation of a distribution system which shows how business cycles can occur. It is widely used in business schools and corporations to help managers cope with the complexity of dynamic environments and introduce them to the concepts of system dynamics.
Peter L. Jackson's page. This page describes a number of games and management flight simulators for teaching operations management.
Primary funding for all the research of the System Dynamics Group comes from about fifteen corporations and private individuals who have made a commitment of both time and money to support the research. A sponsors' contribution can be either a tax deductible contribution or a business expense. Contributions can be in "soft-dollars" through arrangements with several brokerage firms. The annual amount depends on the financial scale of the sponsor.
A number of meetings are held each year with the staff and the sponsors. This is a time of sharing research findings and a time for exchanging ideas and focusing the direction of current and future projects.
The Total Quality Management research is partially funded by the Transformations to Quality Organizations program of the National Science Foundation.
For information about the graduate program in system dynamics, contact The Sloan School of Management.
Professor John D. Sterman
Director, System Dynamics Group
Professor of Management
Jay W. Forrester
Professor Emeritus and
Senior Lecturer
Nelson Repenning
Assistant Professor
Sloan School of Management
Ali Mashayekhi
Visiting Scholar, Teheran, Iran
Rogelio Oliva
Research Assistant
Nan Lux
Program Manager
Kelley Donovan
Administrative Assistant
Sloan School of Management
Graduate Students:
For further information contact Nan Lux at (617) 253-1574 or nlux@mit.edu
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