Environment and systems

1. ENVIRONMENT
(Customers, weather conditions, vendors, banks,
competitors, government)
INPUT (S)
PROCESSES
Procedures
Programs
Tools
Activities
Decisions
OUTPUT (S)
Boundary
Feedback
INPUTS : Raw materials, costs, resources
OUTPUTS : Performances, consequences, finished products,
services delivered

2. INPUTS
• Inputs include those elements that enter the
system
EXAMPLES:
• Raw materials entering a chemical plant
• Patients admitted to a hospital
•Data input into the computer

3. PROCESSES
All the elements necessary to convert or transform the
inputs into outputs are included in the processes.
EXAMPLES:
• In a chemical plant a process may include heating the
materials, using operating procedures, employing the
materials handling subsystem, and using employees and
machines.
• In a hospital the process includes conducting tests and
performing surgery.
• In a computer a process may include activating commands,
executing computations, and storing information.

4. OUTPUTS
Outputs describe the finished products or the
consequences of being in the system.
EXAMPLES:
• fertilizers are one output of a chemical plant
• cured people are an output of a hospital
• reports may be output of a computerized system.

5. ENVIRONMENT
• The environment of the system is composed of
several elements that lie outside it in the sense
that they are not inputs, outputs, or processes.
• However, they have an impact on the system’s
performance and consequently on the attainment
of its goals.

6. The boundary
• A system is separated from its environment by a
boundary.
• The system is inside the boundary whereas the
environment lies outside.
• Boundaries may be physical (e.g., the system is a
department in Building C), or the boundary may
be some nonphysical factor. For example, a system
can be bounded by time. In such a case we may
analyze an organization for a period of only one
year.

7. FEEDBACK
• There is a flow of information from the output
component to the decision maker concerning the
system’s output or performance.
• Based on this information the decision maker,
who acts as a control, may decide to modify the
inputs or the processes, or both.
• This flow, which appears as a closed loop, is
termed feedback.

8. Hospital Process
Inputs
Doctors, nurses
Hospital
Medical Supplies
Processing Outputs
Examination
Surgery
Monitoring Healthy
Equipment
Laboratories
Medication
Therapy
patients

9. Input-Transformation-Output
Relationships for Typical Systems
System Inputs
Transformation
Components
Transformation
Function
Typical Desired
Output
Hospital
Patients, medical MDs, nurses,
supplies equipment
Health care Healthy individuals
Restaurant
Hungry customers,
food
Chef, waitress,
environment
Well-prepared & well-
served food
Satisfied customers
Automobile Sheet steel, engine
Factory parts
Tools, equipment,
workers
Fabrication &
assembly of cars
High-quality cars
College or High School Teachers, Impart knowledge & Educated
University graduates, books classrooms skills individuals
Department Shoppers, stock of
Store goods
Displays, sales
clerks
Attract customers,
promote products, fill
orders
Sales to satisfied
customers