V.M. Glushkov - an ideologist and one of the creators of the automated management information system industry in the USSR
V.M. Glushkov paid great attention to the work on the creation ofmanagement information systems (MIS) based on the use of computer technology. He was the main ideologist and one of the main creators of the management information system industry in the USSR. The main works of V.M. Glushkov and his school covered a wide range of applications: automated process control systems; automation systems for scientific research and testing of complex industrial facilities; automated systems for organizational management of industrial enterprises (ASU).
Victor Mikhailovich Glushkov with employees of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR
V.M. Glushkov, together with his students and colleagues, made a great contribution to the formation and implementation of the ideas of creatingautomated control systems for controlling technological processes, the development of appropriate theory, mathematical, software and special technical means for controlling technological processes in microelectronics, metallurgy, chemical industry, shipbuilding. Automation of experimental scientific research in the early 60s was associated with automation of measurements and processing of the received information using the controlcomputer "Dnepr". Then V.M. Glushkov proposed to develop automated problem-oriented laboratories with the help of academic institutes, including complexes of measuring instruments, computers (micro- or minicomputers) and measurement processing programs. 5-6 such standard laboratories were planned for X-ray diffraction analysis, mass spectrography and other experimental research methods used in chemistry, physics, biology. To process the results of complex nuclear experiments, such laboratories were proposed to be connected to remote computers such as BESM-6 or EC-1060. Since most scientific experiments are not limited to data collection and processing, but require fine-tuning of the experimental facilities themselves, V.M. Glushkov set the task of automating the setup operations of these facilities. By the efforts of specialists of the Institute of Cybernetics, tests for mechanical fatigue of materials were automated at the Institute of Strength Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, experimental studies at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, the Institute of Oncology Problems of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Works on automation of tests of complex industrial facilities were carried out for the navy and aviation. For the future, V.M. Glushkov saw prospects in this area for the development of algorithms for deductive constructions so that the system not only processes measurement results, but also checks hypotheses and builds theories on this basis, i.e. performs the role of an artificial intelligence system in a given subject area.
The development of automated organizational management systems for enterprises was started under the leadership of V. M. Glushkov in 1963-1964. In 1967,the first management information system in the country -ASU Lviv was put into operation and recommended for replication for an enterprise with a mass production at theLviv television plant "Electron".
In 1970, when the system was already successfully operated, its creators V.M. Glushkov, V.I. Skurikhin, A.A. Morozov, V.V. Shkurba and others were awarded the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR. After the creation of theLviv system, V.M. Glushkov set the task of creating not an individual, but a standard management information system for machine and instrument-making enterprises. In the early 70s, work was completed on the"Kuntsevo" system (for the Kuntsevo radio plant), which V.M. Glushkov proposed to lay the foundation for the creation of a management information system at the enterprises of nine defense ministries.
For the construction of standard management information systems, V.M. Glushkov in 1965 put forward the concept of a specialized operating system designed for systems with a regular flow of tasks, in contrast to the operating systems of IBM/360 mainframe computers, which solve random task flows and are good for the batch mode of computing centers. V.M. Glushkov'smonograph "Introduction to Management Information Systems",which was devoted mainly to organizational management systems, was published in the second edition in 1974. It systematized the original results obtained by V.M. Glushkov in 1964-1968.
The work on the creation and implementation of management information systems in practice has not always been successful. The reasons for this phenomenon lay in the sphere of the planned socialist economy that was then in effect in the USSR, forcing enterprises to "drive the shaft of production" without caring about optimizing the technical and economic indicators of production, the quality of manufactured products, scientific and technological progress.
Since the late 60s, the creation of industrial management information systems (OASU) has become relevant. V.M. Glushkov, as the most qualified and authoritative specialist in this field, in the 70s was a scientific supervisor and consultant for many projects of large OASU, in particular in the defense industry. When the Interdepartmental Committee of nine branches and the Board of Directors of the Main Institutes of the defense industries for management, economics and computer science were created in the defense complex, V.M. Glushkov became thescientific director of the committee and the Council. He wasthe scientific directorof a number of large branch OASU, such as the OASU of the Ministry of Instrument Engineering, the OASU of the Ministry of Defense Industry, other OASU of the defense ministries, the Republican ASU in the Ukrainian SSR, ASU "Moscow", ASU "Olympiad-1980", ASU of the Armed Forces of the USSR and other systems.
Management Information Systems
Since the end of the 60s, the creation of industry automated control systems (OACS) has become relevant. V.M. Glushkov, as the most qualified and authoritative specialist in this field, in the 70s was a scientific supervisor and consultant for many projects of large OACs, in particular in the defense industry. When an interdepartmental committee (MVK) of nine industries and a Board of Directors of Leading Institutes (SDGI) of the defense industries for management, economics and informatics were created in the defense complex, the scientific director of the committee and the Council became V.M. Glushkov.
Under the scientific guidance of V.M. Glushkov, the OACS of the Ministry of Instrumentation, the OACS of the Ministry of Defense Industry, other OACS of the nine defense ministries, the Republican ACS in the Ukrainian SSR, the ACS "Moscow", the ACS "Olympic Games-1980", the ACS of the Armed forces of the USSR and other systems.
ACS
From the memoirs of V.M. Glushkov
... A new stage in the development of automated enterprise management systems began in the second half of the 70s. These are the so-called complex automated management information systems , in which the issues of computer-aided design, automated technology management, automation of testing of finished products and automation of organizational management are organically merged into a single whole.
Such a complex automated management information system, the first in the country, is being created now for the Ulyanovsk Aviation Plant. V.I. Skurikhin and A.A .Morozov are doing it again, and almost all of A.A. Morozov's SKB are doing it. The next direction, which also did not arise immediately, although it originated a long time ago, is the development of the theory of automated management information systems for economic objects (enterprises, industries), as well as automatic systems for controlling various technical means.
Work on economic management began in 1962, with the creation of a draft design of a nationwide network of computing centers, and on specific automated production management systems (ASPS), starting from 1963 - 1964.
Then we began to think over the Lviv system (ASU) with a large-scale nature of production at a television factory in Lviv.
In 1965, I put forward the concept of a specialized operating system designed for systems with a regular flow of tasks plus a small percentage of irregular tasks. The fact is that the operating systems with which IBM-360 computers were supplied in 1965 and which solve random streams of tasks are universal for batch mode and are good for computing centers (relatively good, of course). And in the automated management information system, as a rule, we dealt with regular tasks, i.e. we knew that at some time such and such a task should come to the account. Therefore, we could use time anticipation for preliminary preparation of information so that when the task came to the account, the necessary information was already ready (magnetic tapes were twisted, and the first portion of information was transferred to RAM, etc.). To do this, a task schedule was introduced, and with the help of multi-programming, it remained only to fill in the gaps with the account irregular tasks or debugging new tasks that arise as a result of system development.
After the "Lviv system" in the late 60s - early 70s, we completed work on the "Kuntsevo" system (for the Kuntsevo radio plant). It was done in such a way as to cover almost most of the tasks in the group of instrument and machine-building industries.
We managed to sign relevant orders that 600 systems that were being developed at that time in nine defense ministries (machine-building and instrument-making) should be made on the basis of the Kuntsevo system…
Victor Mikhailovich Glushkov played a huge role in shaping the ideas of creating automated management information systems. Under his leadership, the development of special technical means for controlling a number of technological processes in the metallurgical, chemical and shipbuilding industries, as well as for microelectronics, was carried out.
Analyzing the possibilities of computer technology and the problems of economics, V.M. Glushkov was the first to put forward the idea of creating automated management information systems for enterprises as the lowest element of an automated management system for the economy as a whole.
In 1962, V.M. Glushkov gave a lecture in Lviv on the possibilities of computers. The director of the Electron plant, S.O. Petrovsky, approached him and offered his plant as a testing ground for the creation of an automated management information system by the enterprise. Thus began the development of the country's first ASU, which was named "Lviv". The first stage of the system was commissioned by the State Commission in 1967. It was recognized as a model for enterprises with a mass nature of production and replication of this system began in all branches of the defense industry. More than 1000 such systems have been implemented.
In 1967, the country's first automated management information system (ASU) of an enterprise with a mass production character "Lviv" was commissioned and recommended for mass replication. Many of the principles underlying automated management information systems of other types have been worked out on this system. In 1970, V.M. Glushkov (with a team of authors) was awarded the State Prize of the Ukrainian SSR for this development.
In parallel with the Lviv system, the systems "Project", "Speed", "Turn", "Drawing" were developed, which automated individual product life cycles.
V.M. Glushkov, together with the teams of automated management information system developers, forms a new task - the creation of complex automated management information systems.
The first such system was developed for NPO Energia (Kaliningrad, Moscow region). Within its framework, the country's first flexible production system (GIS) was created, where only automatic machines and robots worked. This was a step towards the creation of automatic control plants, which the developers of the automated management information system were already beginning to dream about. Buran was made on this GIS. The system was awarded the USSR State Prize.
The creation of the NPO "Energia" Complex ASU lasted 5 years. The system was also adopted by the State Commission. This development was led by Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine V.I. Skurikhin and A.A. Morozov.
At the end of the 60s, the automated management information system "Kuntsevo" was created under the leadership of A.A. Stogniy, which was also recognized as a model for its class of enterprises and recommended for replication.
The work on the Lviv system allowed to form a team of automated management information system developers. Among them are Skurikhin V.I., Shkurba V.V., Morozov A.A. and a number of others.
The ideology of the automated management information system becomes generally accepted in the 70s. And when a decision is made in the USSR on the construction of the Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex, at the same time, a decision is made on the creation of the Complex ASU for this enterprise. This was the first example of designing a huge industrial complex with a built-in automated management information system. The delivery of the Ulyanovsk Aviation Industrial Complex cash register was carried out simultaneously with the release of the first Ruslan aircraft by the enterprise. The chief designer of the system was A.A. Morozov.
The experience of creating a number of automated organizational management systems allowed V.M. Glushkov to formulate the task of a nationwide automated management system (OGAS).
National Automated System for Collecting and Processing Information for Accounting, Planning and Management of the National Economy (OGAS)
In 1962, V.M. Glushkov began developing a project that later became known as National automated system for collecting and processing information for accounting, planning and management of the national economy (OGAS).
Beginning the creation of the OGAS project, V.M. Glushkov personally studied the work of more than a thousand objects of the national economy: factories of various industries, mines, railways, airports, higher authorities — Gosplan, Gossnab, CSB, Ministry of Finance. He developed macroeconomic models and ways to improve public administration techniques, which was reflected in his monograph «Macroeconomic Models and Introduction to OGAS».
V.M. Glushkov proposed the concept of OGAS as a unified system for collecting reporting information on the national economy, planning and managing the national economy, as well as an information base for modeling various optionsfor the development of the national economy.
Unified State Network of Computer Centers (EGSVTS)
The technical basis of the OGAS was to be Unified State Network of Computing Centers (EGSVTs). In the draft design of the EGSVTs & nbsp; V.M. Glushkov justified the construction of a network of about 100 large centers in industrial cities and centers of economic regions, united by broadband communication channels with message switching and connected with 20 thousand centers of enterprises and organizations.
The creation of a distributed data bank and the development of a system of mathematical models of economic management were envisaged.
Dialog system of planned calculations DISPLAN
The central link of the OGAS was to become automated system of planned settlements to develop and adjust long-term, long-term, medium-term (five-year) and current (annual) plans, implementing the principles of strategic planning, program-targeted management and intersectoral balance em> using scenario modeling.
The prototype wasDISPLAN (dialogue system of planned calculations), created by a team led by V.M . Glushkov and introduced within the framework of the republican automated control system in the Ukrainian SSR. The DISPLAN system was a complex of mathematical, technical, system-wide and special software designed to automate planned calculations in real time. This system allowed for quick adjustment and effective optimization of intersectoral balances, combined balance methods with methods of program-targeted management.
- DISPLAN was designed for both long-term, and short-term< /em> planning on the scale of a country or a group of countries, as well as on any designated territory
- DISPLAN allowed continuous planning, which made it possible to take into account new trends in the economy, rapid scientific and technological progress, as well as various force majeure. After new data entered the system, forecasts were immediately recalculated, and plans were changed
- The DISPLAN system made it possible to solve the problems of automated interaction between territorial and sectoral administrations (through the appropriate automated control systems) so that the plans for sectoral and territorial development remain constantly interconnected
- The plan compiled by DISPLAN, allowed to calculate both excess and scarce resources. In the presence of scarce resources, the plan was considered unbalanced. Work on balancing plans consisted in the development of specific proposals for changing its individual sections aimed at reducing the deficit. Such changes could also concern the structure of certain positions of the plan. They could also be aimed at saving resources, speeding up the commissioning of capacities, introducing new construction and reconstruction programs, changing the structure of foreign trade, etc.
- The hierarchical structure of the system allowed to carry out planning work not only in the State Planning Commission, but also in the Ministries, and at enterprises, and in the control centers for targeted programs. The DISPLAN technology assumed the use of different project units (monetary and in-kind) for different types of products and at different stages of planning (including the input-output balance).
- DISPLAN was not static, but dynamic planning model < /span>with plan-fact analysis capabilities. Its advantage was that the data came from real automated control systems, projects and development programs. It was assumed that DISPLAN would be used in conjunction with planning and forecasting methods, such as the "predictive tree" method; V. M. Glushkov, first proposed by him in 1969
The concept of managing scientific and technological progress and V.M. Glushkov's predictive tree method
The most important contribution of V.M. Glushkov to the development ofstrategic planning and management is the concept of managing scientific and technological progress and the method of managing scientific and technical progress using agreed predictive expert assessments (V.M. Glushkov's predictive tree method). The forecasting method based on expert assessments (the forecast tree method), proposed by Glushkov in 1969, was successfully tested within the framework of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, first on a bilateral, and then on a multilateral basis.
The forecasting method based on expert assessments allows you to optimally aggregate expert opinions (contradictory, and sometimes directly opposite), resulting in probabilistic estimates of the timing and ways to achieve the goals.
- The entire forecast resides permanently in the computer's memory. Due to this, when the opinion of certain experts changes, the forecast is recalculated online. Such dynamism is a mandatory requirement for any scientific and technical forecast. Without this, due to the continuous development of science and scientific and technical capabilities, the forecast quickly becomes outdated and not only does not help, but sometimes even harms the cause.
- The method provides forecast management based on constant work with experts, setting additional research and other measures. The purpose of such management is to consistently refine the forecast tree, especially in its parts that are close in time, to discard unpromising options in a timely manner, ultimately obtaining for a period of 5-10 years no longer predictive graph, and the network graph of the corresponding program. At the same time, the problem of determining co-executors and the exact formulation of tasks for their work is solved. This is such an important feature of the methodology that allows you to minimize the effort to develop program management schemes.
The predictive tree method Glushkov is considered a new stage in the development of methods of expert assessments in forecasting. It combines the ideas of the two – Delphi and PERT.
- Unlike the Delphi method, in V.M. Glushkov’s expert is not just asked when, in his opinion, this machine will be created or this or that problem will be solved, but they are interested in what specific steps and tasks need to be performed for this.
- As a result of such an examination, a "predictive tree" is built. The advantage of this approach is not only obtaining forecasts, but also the ability to determine various ways to achieve them
- Unlike PERT, in the predictive tree technique, there are alternative ways, which are not provided in the PERT methodology. In PERT, all work must be done without fail and there are no events that can be bypassed or skipped.
- Glushkov's technique allows us to consider various options for achieving goals and choose the best one from them, depending on one or another criterion. Achieving the maximum accuracy of the forecast is a prerequisite for converting it into a plan.
It is important to note that the concepts and methods of V.M. Glushkov in the field of automation of economic management systems are applicable not only to the planned Soviet, but also to the modern Russian economy, where instead of central planning, methods of indicative planning and performance management are used. These concepts and methods are in line with the concepts and methods of program-oriented management and performance management used by developed countries at the present stage to manage the economy, its individual industries and companies.
The fate of OGAS
Until the end of life V.M. Glushkov continued what he started back in 1962 struggle to uphold proposals summarized under the name OGAS. Thanks to his efforts, the task of creating the OGAS was mentioned at the XXIV Congress of the CPSU in 1971 in the speech of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR A.N. Kosygin, who said: "Our planned economy allows us to create a nationwide automated system for collecting and processing information for accounting, planning and managing the national economy." In the directives of the Congress on the 9th Five-Year Plan, in the section on improving management and planning, it was noted that in the USSR it was necessary to develop "work on the creation and implementation of automated systems for planning and managing industries, territorial organizations, associations, enterprises, meaning to create a nationwide automatedyu system of collecting and processing information for accounting, planning and management of the national economy».
Unfortunately, these decisions were not fully implemented, but they gave a serious impetus to the development of automated control systems at various levels of management and the IT industry in the USSR, in which, according to historians, by the end of 1980 -s. about 700 thousand specialists worked. Unfortunately, instead of a clear decision on the creation OGAS expected in resolutions XXV and ХХVI congresses KPSS, had to agree to the initial development of ACS on the scale of the Union Republics (RASU) with their subsequent merging with OASU into a single OGAS system. It was not possible to create the State Committee for the Improvement of Management (Goskomupr), proposed by Glushkov, headed by the head of the Communist Party or the Government. However, under the scientific guidance of V.M. Glushkov, a scientific coordination center – VNIIPOU (All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Management Organization Problems).
The decision of the Soviet Government regarding the start of work on the OGAS with specific funding, development stages, deadlines, performers, etc. so it never showed up. This could not but injure V.M. Glushkov, who promoted the ideas of OGAS with all his might. According to ACS veteran, Colonel V.P. Isaev, «Among the most prominent supporters of ACS who gave a lot of strength and intelligence to this cause, we must remember the names of A.I. Berg, L.V. Kantorovich, A.A. Lyapunov, V.S. Nemchinov, G.S. Pospelova and others. And the main wrestler was V.M. Glushkov, who created an entire domestic ACS industry, including theory and practice, industrial and scientific infrastructure. V.M. Glushkov gave his all to the ACS cause; all my life until the very end… V.M. Glushkov takes upon himself all the ideological preparations for creating a coherent automated control system, in modern terms – "ASU-information vertical". And he does it on a gigantic scale: from the formulation of the famous 10 principles for building automated control systems to the complete concept of building a nationwide automated control system on a national scale – OGAS»[1]< /a> .
In practice, the revolutionary ideas of restructuring the country's economic management on the basis of the OGAS met with misunderstanding, delay and direct opposition from the high-ranking bureaucratic leadership and a number of economists.
Why wasn't OGAS created? After all, this system correctly reflected in technical terms the strictly centralized structure of the country's national economy. There were financial and technical reasons for this, the great complexity of the project caused concern. But the main reason for the rejection of the ideas of the OGAS lies in the fact that the party leaders of the country of those times would lose their places in the power hierarchy, because. should have ceded power to the more advanced technocrats. The political economy of socialism formed in the 1930s in the 1960s/70s. ceased to correspond to existing economic processes. The ideological and political systems of the USSR needed a qualitative update. In the USSR, under the conditions of a monopoly on power by the CPSU, it was impossible to implement any large-scale project without a joint decision of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Government of the USSR, but it was they who became a barrier to the OGAS.
In addition,hostile to USSR forces organized a number of publications in the media, ironic over V.M. Glushkov and his idea of OGAS, claiming that he was going to replace the computer by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (as one article wrote: “Punched cards will rule the Kremlin”). But V.M. Glushkov consistently continued to defend the ideas of the OGAS until the end of his life.
In the archive of the Institute of Cybernetics named after V.M. Glushkov National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine there is a fairly large number of copies of notes by V.M. Glushkov in the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR (approximately one note every two months) on the use and development of the achievements of VT and automated control systems in various areas of the national economy (economy, defense, public administration, education, etc.). Thanks to these notes, one can judge the list of possible projects that were impossible to implement in the then USSR. And that was the tragic part of his life. V.M. Glushkov understood that the inertia and slowness of the existing political system in the country led to its death and, as subsequent events showed, the country as a whole. Civil position V.M. Glushkova was active. First of all, these are his regular publications in popular science and public publications and lectures for the scientific community and senior management of the country.
Internet portal dedicated to OGAS
References
- Glushkov V.M. Macroeconomic models and principles of construction of OGAS / V. M. Glushkov. – M.: "Statistics", 1975.
- Glushkov V. M. "Introduction to automated control systems". – K .: Technique, 1970.
- Glushkov V. M. DISPLAN – new planning technology. // Control systems and machines. – 1980. №6
- Glushkov V. M. Management of scientific and technological progress. // Planned economy. – 1980. No. 6.
- Glushkov V. M., Oleyarsh G. B. Dialogue planning system DISPLAN. // Control systems and machines. – 1976. No. 4.
- Glushkov V. M. About one class of dynamic macroeconomic models // Control systems and machines. – 1977. No. 2.
- Glushkov V. M., Oleyarsh G. B. Issues of building a dialogue planning system DISPLAN. // Preprint-77-36. Kyiv: Institute of Cybernetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1977.
- Glushkov. VM On forecasting based on expert assessments. // Cybernetics. – 1969. No. 2.
- Glushkov V.M. Management of scientific and technological progress. // Planned economy. – 1980. – No. 6. – P. 46–54.
- Forecasting the scientific and technological potential of the CMEA member countries and R&D infrastructure: concept, developments, experience and prospects. – Materials for the meeting of experts and specialists of the CMEA member countries, October 5-10. 1987, Czechoslovakia. – Kyiv: IES im. E.O. Paton of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1987 – 28 p.
- Glushkov V.M. Cybernetics and social forecasting. // Problems of peace and socialism. – 1971. – No. 1. – P. 37–42.
- Glushkov V.M. Forecast and plan // Science and Suspіlstvo. – 1971. – No. 7. – P. 4–8.
- Glushkov V.M. «Fundamentals of paperless informatics», M.: Nauka, Ch. ed fiz.-mat. lit., 1987. – 552 p.
- Glushkov V.M.: Cybernetics, computer science, informatics. Selected tr. in three volumes. T.1. Mathematical questions of cybernetics. T. 2. COMPUTER — technical base of cybernetics. T. 3.Cybernetics and its application in the national economy). Naukova dumka, Kiev (1978). 1990. 318 pages
- [1]Isaev V.P.: Ways of creating and development of domestic automated control systems through the eyes of a direct participant in the events.http://computer-museum.ru/galglory/kitov_10.htm< /a>