Abstract:

The future of any industrial firm depends mainly on its development policy. Management is fully aware of this fact today, and this is why those responsible for laying down policy devote so much attention to research both to discover new uses for existing products and to invent new products and techniques. In order to be able to conduct this research, we have developed our own methodology known as MARSAN (Methode d'Analyse, Recherche et Selection d'Activites Nouvelles). This method is the result of considerable thought and of an effort to streamline research into new products. It also constitutes a new methodological approach to the more general problem of selecting and classifying products or articles, where a large number of factors come into play. This process of selection and classification is carried out by electronic computer according to a programme designed specifically for this purpose, which we have called "ELECTRE"