The problem with managing either a business or a prison by periodic rather than continuous inspection is that the "variables" are likely to be seriou… - Anthony Stafford Beer

Certain management policies-stretching of credit resources, for example-may lead to great progress in good conditions; but, like the Grand Prix car in comparison with the Land Rover, they may not be robust enough to survive when the going gets tough.

The whole picture is complicated by the stockists and merchants who will try to exploit any shortages that may appear.
The result is this. The feedback information from the industry's environment consists, first and foremost, of a forward order load. Much of this "demand for steel" will be bogus.

If cybernetics is the science of control, management is the profession of control