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Operational Research

P/OM/27. Operational Research: history and evaluation

WORDS:

4500

DATE:

2004

PRICE:

49.99 GBP

The paper looks at a brief history of operational research (OR), or management science. It opens with an overview of the OR early history, showing how operational research started in Britain in late 1930s was used in World War II and what methods of OR originated during this time. The paper focuses on OR application in Royal Air Force. It goes on to present a discussion of how OR has evolved over the years: its ''Golden Age'' in the post-war period (1945 ? 1970s) and the present day situation. Special attention is given to the Operational Research Society and its role in our society. The paper shows the elaborate tools OR is using now in order to apply the right technique to the appropriate problem. These are: Mathematical Programming, Networks, Scheduling, Inventories, Decision Theory, Heuristics, Renewal Theory, Probability Theory, Project Planning, Queueing Theory, Stochastic Processes, Simulation Modelling, Forecasting and Statistics. In the closing section the author comes up with a critical evaluation of OR.

KEYWORDS: o, operational, research, history, evaluation,