Management of information in complex systems: perspectives for the new millennium

Engineering, operations research, and management science use scientific and engineering processes to design, plan, and schedule increasingly more complex industrial systems in order to enhance performance. One can argue that the systems have grown in complexity over the years mainly due to increased strive for resource optimization combined with a greater degree of uncertainty in the system's environment. Information is seen as one of the main resources that managers try to use in an optimal way. Managing complex systems requires a greater understanding and knowledge about the role of information in systems operation. Today, a growing complexity of information flow is a characteristic of enterprises which concerns products to be manufactured, services to be offered, processes and company structures. Complex systems also operate in changing environments surrounded by numerous uncertainties and disturbances. Difficulties arise from unexpected tasks and events and from a multitude of possible failures and other interactions during the attempt to control various activities in dynamic environments. Therefore, management of information is one of the most important aspects to be considered in intelligent management systems, which are expected to solve unforeseen problems, even on the basis of incomplete and imprecise information. The paper discusses the importance of information in operation management as well as new challenges in information modelling, visualisation and communication in the information society.