SYSTEMS DYNAMICS (Short history of)
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3461 ▶ |
| Object type | General information |
S. MARTINEZ offers the following synthetic sketch of Systems dynamics history: “In the 1950s, J.W. FORRESTER, a systems engineer at MIT…, was commissioned by the U.S. company Sprague Electric to study the extreme oscillations of their sales and establish a means to correct them. From previous experience, FORRESTER knew that the essence of the problem stemmed from the oscillations present in systems that contain inertia effects or delays and reverse effects, or feedback loops as basic structural characteristics.
- “In 1961, FORRESTER published his report on Industrial Dynamics (M.I.T. Press) which marked the beginning of ”S.D. technique“, based on the study and simulation of the behavior of social systems. In 1968, World Dynamics (Wright-Allen Press) was published, which served as the basis for the MEADOWS and MEADOWS Report to the Rome Club, a research project that was published under the title The Limits of Growth (Potomac Associates, 1972). It could be said that this report and the extensive controversy it provoked, were actually what popularized Systems Dynamics all over the world.
- “At present, Systems Dynamics (S.D.) or Simulation Dynamics — as it is sometimes called — is a widespread technique in general use for the modeling and study of the behavior of any type of system that contains delay or feedback characteristics” (1993, p.384).
It should be added that the cultural background, as well as some methodological assumptions and even the real goals of the S.D. based World models have been heavily criticized from various sides, specially in South America. (The Argentine FUNDACION BARILOCHE report).