An MIS consists of two types of informayion-producing subsystems. Report-writing software provides information in the form of periodic and special reports.Mathematical models
provide information in the form of simulation results.
Management by exception can be incorporated into reports by preparing them only when the exceptions occur, by using an ascending or descending sequence to highlight exceptions,
by grouping exceptions togother, and by using variance columns.
A mthematical model simulates an entity and can be static or dynamic, probabilistic or detreministic,
and optimizing or suboptimizing. models are designed so that the manager can specify the scenario and then assign values to decision variables. A manager who engages in modeling
can expect to learn from the modeling experience, be able to consider a larger number of alternatives becouse of the simulation speed, gain a certain predictive power, and possibly avoid the costs of bad
decisions. However, the manager must recognize that the model is only an approximation of reality and that the requirement for mathematical skills increases as the models become more complex.
