Jay Forrester and System Dynamics

Science and Technology Dateline: July 14

Electrical and Computer Engineer, Management Specialist

Jay Wright Forrester is born on July 14, 1918, in Anselmo, Nebraska. He is best known as the founder of System Dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems. Forrester is an American electrical and computer engineer, systems scientist and was a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

System dynamics, of which he is a pioneer, is an approach to understanding the behaviour of complex systems over time. Significantly, it deals with internal feedback loops and time delays that affect the behaviour of the entire system, elements that help describe how seemingly simple systems display non-linearity.

Jay Forrester is also known for his other researches. During the late 1950s, he and his colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) developed many ideas and theories that later became the cornerstones of supply chain management.

Among his notable awards include the IEEE Medal of Honor and Howard N. Potts Medal.

Forrester profile can be found at Jay Forrester Biography

Dynamic stock and flow diagram of model New product adoption (model from article by John Sterman 2001)

[Image: Dynamic Stock and Flow Diagram of Adoption model]


Images:

Jay Wright Forrester, Wikimedia Commons

Dynamic Stock and Flow Diagram, Wikimedia Commons