Application of Viable System Model in Diagnosis of Organizational Structure

Systemic Practice and Action Research - A well-designed organizational structure is a cornerstone of achieving an organization’s goals while suiting the environmental challenges. Structural...     

Evolution of Management Cybernetics and Viable System Model

Systemic Practice and Action Research - The Viable System Model have pulled in system specialists’ interests lately. This field could help system analyzers and designers to deal with systems...     

Design Rules for Intranets According to the Viable System Model

The Viable System Model, VSM, by Stafford Beer is a model used for diagnosing and designing organizational structure and communication to facilitate necessary and sufficient conditions for viability. The model has been used for diagnosing different kinds of organizations at different levels where its use highlights existing or missing communication patterns and information flows in different communication channels and relates findings to a viable system. In a previous article, VSM and Intranet have been discussed and examples of advantages of combining the two concepts when designing organizations, has been given. In this article, VSM is combined with Intranet and possible functions in an intranet that support information exchange between different systems are identified and described. The suggested functions identified in this article are finally related to Intranet use modes, and the concepts of Empowerment vs. control.     

The Viable System Model and Its Application to Complex Organizations

Stafford Beer’s Viable System Model is the best known of the many cybernetic models he constructed over a career spanning more than 50 years. He explored the necessary conditions for viability in any complex system whether an organism, an organization or a country. Although the model was first applied in his work in the steel industry, many further applications were made during his later work as a consultant. The best known of these was when he was invited by President Salvadore Allende of Chile in 1970 to model the social economy of that country. That experiment was brutally cut short in 1973 by the CIA assisted coup during which Allende was killed and Pinochet’s dictatorship installed. The model itself draws on mathematics, psychology, biology, neurophysiology, communication theory, anthropology and philosophy. It was first expressed in mathematical terms in ‘The Cybernetic Factory’; next it was described in neurophysiological terms in Brain of the firm; and finally according to logic and graphic presentation in Heart of Enterprise and Diagnosing the System for Organizations. This last version is the one that is most accessible. It enables people to address organizational issues in a way that skirts the usual categories and organization charts and gets down to the actual necessary functions, no matter who is performing them. With this model people can get a boost as they diagnose or design an organizations. One aspect is to discover what the organization’s critical variables are and to find or install the homeostats that will show that they are maintaining equilibrium. Within that context, the model will help you ascertain that the principle functions and communications channels are in place and can function effectively. A crucial aspect of the VSM is that it is recursive; that is that the same relationships can be traced from the shop floor to the corporation or from the village to the country. Two examples will be discussed: a small business and the Chilean work from the 1970s. It is hoped that this will encourage people to imagine a world that works much better than it does now and where management is not defeated by complexity. A version of this paper was delivered as the first Stafford Beer Memorial Lecture on July 8, 2007 at the World Multiconference on Systems, Cybernetics and Informatics in Orlando Florida.     

Diagnosing Business Incubation for Social Purpose: A Viable System Model Approach

Systemic Practice and Action Research - Business incubation is one of the means that promotes the overall business and economic growth of a particular location. However, to date, the role of...     

基于Targetlink的嵌入式系统控制软件开发

采用dSPACE公司提供的Targetlink自动代码生成工具,与MATLAB/Simulink软件配合,实现了嵌入式系统控制软件代码开发及自动生成。通过控制模型的规范设计,Targetlink软件的优化及代码生成,以及各种仿真测试和最终ECU样机的实验验证,成功地将这套开发工具应用于电控柴油机喷油系统控制软件的开发。与手工编写软件相比,Targetlink自动生成的代码不但功能相当,而且执行效率和代码尺寸的增加量完全在可接受范围内。另外,大大缩短了开发周期,提高了软件升级和更新的效率,保障了软件的运行质量。     

Passing on a family business,or a family business passing on? An application of the Viable System Model

This paper reports the application of the Viable System Model in an attempt to reconstruct a family owned retail motor trader.     

基于SVM的脑中风分型诊断模型的优化研究

SVM具有优良的学习能力和泛化能力,在应用SVM解决实际问题时,必须对其进行寻优,找到最合适的SVM模型.基于支持向量机模型算法,针对特征选择和核函数及参数选择单独优化的缺陷,提出了将特征选择和核函数及参数选择联合进行的优化方法.仿真实验结果表明,采用联合优化后的模型进行脑中风的预测诊断,准确率达94.3%.与单独优化相比,不仅提高了分类性能,而且缩短了模型的判别时间.     

基于PSTN的远程图像监视系统的软件实现

提出并实现了一种基于PSTN的远程图像监视系统。该系统的主要功能模块均是在Windows操作系统下的Visual C 6.0编程环境中开发的,用以实现通过图像采集卡采集外部的视频信息,然后对其进行编码压缩,将压缩后的码流发送到和本地计算机建立拨号连接的任意一台远程计算机;远程计算机则对接收到的码流进行实时解码显示和存储。     

一类基于协同进化模型的混沌系统

分析了一类基于遗传算法无限种群模型的协同进化系统,在此基础上构造了一类新的协同进化系统,并推导出了它在单基因位情况下的动力方程.对新系统在稳态情况下的复杂动力行为进行了分析,通过相图、分岔图和Lyapunov指数谱图,严格地证明了该系统具有混沌特性.     

基于环节的控制系统图形组态仿真软件

介绍了一个基于环节的控制系统图形组态仿真软件的功能和实现方法，及改进的仿真算法，在数值计算方法中，引入了拉各朗日线性插值方法，既大大减少了迭代计算量，又保持了原有的仿真精度，利用这一可视化仿真平台，用户可对线性系统，多变量系统，多变量Smith预估控制系统，采样系统等方便快捷地建立方框图形式的系统仿真模型，从而为复杂系统的分析和设计提供了仿真研究平台，系统界面友好，易于扩展。     

基于仿真的故障诊断专家系统应用研究

针对某自行高炮火控系统的故障诊断,为解决其知识获取的“瓶颈”问题,提出了一种计算机仿真与人工智能相结合的知识获取方案。该诊断系统采用多种推理方法相结合的集成推理策略,可以有效地提高故障诊断的可靠性。多次的故障诊断实验表明,此系统不但突破了知识获取的瓶颈,而且具有很高的故障识别率。     

基于GERT模型的新产品研发项目周期仿真分析

针对新产品研发项目周期的估计和控制问题，以VCDM3型真空树脂灌注机研发过程为背景，利用随机网络技术建立该项目的GERT模型并对其进行仿真求解，获得项目周期的概率分布和各种统计特征值。随后分析影响项目周期的各种因素，通过对敏感性系数的计算找出关键活动及其关键参数，并进一步绘制关键敏感性系数随影响因素相对变动幅度的变化曲线，在对曲线讨论分析的基础上最终得出项目周期的最佳控制策略。     

基于分区的安全关键软件体系及其时间分析研究

以综合模块化航空电子系统为研究对象,针对分时分区体系提出了其时间分析模型,结合IPET和不变量分析设计并实现了时间可分析工具IMATime.采用SNU Benchmark对IMATime进行了时间评估.并采用IMATime对分时分区软件平台FCOS进行了三级分析,分析结果除了能够指导系统通用设计外,还能提供综合模块化航空电子系统的专用参数分区周期和分区容限.最后针对某综合了飞行控制系统,导航系统和数传系统的综合航空电子系统进行了实例分析.     

基于证据理论的大型工程投融资群体决策模型

目前,在大型工程项目中,对前期的投融资方案进行决策已经成为了几乎所有大型工程建设前期准备的重要组成部分。一个大型工程项目融资决策的成败将直接影响到项目的实施及最后的运营。本文基于证据理论的基本思想,研究了在大型工程环境下,投融资方案选择的群体决策问题。通过对mass函数构造方法的改进,引入了相对权重矩阵的概念,从而解决了投融资决策时各决策专家权重设置的问题,并进一步通过大型工程建设项目中具体的算例验证了该方法的有效性和可行性。     

Embodiments of organizational fitness: The Viable System Model (VSM) as a guide

Managers are facing new problems in their quest for organizational fitness. With environments of growing complexity, foresight, adaptability, and learning become critical features for a social system to survive and develop. Established models of organizational control are insufficient to cope with this proliferating complexity. The science of cybernetics provides powerful models to master this key challenge to management. The present article offers a synthesis of Beer's Viable System Model (VSM) and a multilevel concept of organizational fitness, based on recent progress made in the field of planning theory.     

The Viable Systems Model Applied to a National System of Innovation to Inform Policy Development

This paper outlines how the viable systems model (VSM) can provide insights into a National System of Innovation by focussing on the necessary variety needed to match the system's changing external environment. Because an innovation system is more diffuse than a firm, the VSM needs to be described within an ‘ecological’ metaphor. This approach gives insights into the system's learning processes, showing that there can be a trade-off between variety and control for the system to maintain a fixed level of viability. Furthermore, for many innovation systemsthe coordination is ‘soft’; taking place through markets, through Government directions, and through relationships embodied in clusters, unions or industry groups, etc.Governments generally can only manage the system indirectly by facilitating the generation of the necessary variety, influencing strategic directions, filling gaps in the system and encouraging coordination. Societal or cultural innovations, such as new forms of citizen participation in decision-making, may well improve the viability of an innovation system. However, if these innovations are pursued for societal rather than economic purposes, they fall outside the usual definition of innovation within an NSI.