OPERATIONS RESEARCH

OPERATIONS RESEARCH

1. Abbreviation

   • The British/Europeans refer to "operational research", the Americans to "operations research" - but both are often shortened to just "OR" - which is the term we will use.

2. Main Purpose

   • To provide a rational basis for decisions making in the absence of complete information, because the systems composed of human, machine, and procedures may do not have complete information.

3. Concept

   • Is the application of scientific methods to improve the effectiveness of operations, decisions and management.

4. Classical Aspects of Science

   • i) Determining the systems behaviour ii) Analyzing the systems behaviour by developing appropriate models iii) Predict the future behaviour using these models.

5. History

   • Early in 1936 the British Air Ministry established Bawdsey Research Station, on the east coast. The first of three major pre-war air-defence exercises was carried out in the summer of 1937. In July 1938 a second major air-defense exercise was carried out. In the summer of 1939 Britain held what was to be its last pre-war air defence exercise.
     • 1940 Stanmore Research Section was asked to analyze a French request for ten additional fighter squadrons. In 1941, an Operational Research Section (ORS) was established in Coastal Command. 1951 the first book on “Methods of Operations Research”, by Morse and Kimball, was published.

6. Applications

   • Facilities Planning: Factory location and size decision Estimation of number of facilities required Hospital planning International logistic system design Transportation loading and unloading Warehouse location decision Manufacturing: Inventory control Marketing balance projection Production scheduling Production smoothing