The reflection of logistics in electronic computer design

Analytical and operational logistics seem, at first glance, to require widely differing computational tools. When one looks more deeply into typical undertakings in logistics, including such varied activities as: fundamental logistics research, the playing of war games, production scheduling, and the determination of supply requirements, appropriate computational techniques do not appear to require markedly differing computational facilities. If differences are deemed essential, they appear to lie in accessibility of storage and the nature and extent of peripheral equipment rather than in the basic organization and mathematical power of the central computer. Representative problems in varied aspects of logistics are discussed briefly. An appropriate mathematical model is displayed, in each case, with perhaps a heuristic derivation, and is viewed from the standpoint of the computational facilities it requires. New applications of electronic computers, such as the mechanical translation of languages and information retrieval (now in the exploratory stage), which promise to have significant logistical implication, are discussed briefly.