Operations

research

Operations research, or operational

research (OR) in British usage, is a
discipline that deals with the application
of advanced analytical methods to help
make better decisions.[1] Further, the
term 'operational analysis' is used in the
British (and some British
Commonwealth) military as an intrinsic
part of capability development,
management and assurance. In
particular, operational analysis forms
part of the Combined Operational
Effectiveness and Investment Appraisals,
which support British defense capability
acquisition decision-making.

It is often considered to be a sub-field of

applied mathematics.[2] The terms
management science and decision
science are sometimes used as
synonyms.[3]

Employing techniques from other

mathematical sciences, such as
mathematical modeling, statistical
analysis, and mathematical optimization,
operations research arrives at optimal or
near-optimal solutions to complex
decision-making problems. Because of
its emphasis on human-technology
interaction and because of its focus on
practical applications, operations
research has overlap with other
disciplines, notably industrial engineering
and operations management, and draws
on psychology and organization science.
Operations research is often concerned
with determining the maximum (of profit,
performance, or yield) or minimum (of
loss, risk, or cost) of some real-world
objective. Originating in military efforts
before World War II, its techniques have
grown to concern problems in a variety of
industries.[4]
Overview
Operational research (OR) encompasses
a wide range of problem-solving
techniques and methods applied in the
pursuit of improved decision-making and
efficiency, such as simulation,
mathematical optimization, queueing
theory and other stochastic-process
models, Markov decision processes,
econometric methods, data envelopment
analysis, neural networks, expert
systems, decision analysis, and the
analytic hierarchy process.[5] Nearly all of
these techniques involve the
construction of mathematical models
that attempt to describe the system.
Because of the computational and
statistical nature of most of these fields,
OR also has strong ties to computer
science and analytics. Operational
researchers faced with a new problem
must determine which of these
techniques are most appropriate given
the nature of the system, the goals for
improvement, and constraints on time
and computing power.

The major sub-disciplines in modern

operational research, as identified by the
journal Operations Research,[6] are:

Computing and information

technologies
 Financial engineering
Manufacturing, service sciences, and
supply chain management
Policy modeling and public sector work
Revenue management
Simulation
Stochastic models
Transportation

History
In the decades after the two world wars,
the tools of operations research were
more widely applied to problems in
business, industry and society. Since that
time, operational research has expanded
into a field widely used in industries
ranging from petrochemicals to airlines,
finance, logistics, and government,
moving to a focus on the development of
mathematical models that can be used
to analyse and optimize complex
systems, and has become an area of
active academic and industrial
research.[4]

Historical origins

In the 17th century, mathematicians like

Christiaan Huygens and Blaise Pascal
(problem of points) tried to solve
problems involving complex decisions
with probability. Others in the 18th and
19th centuries solved these types of
problems with combinatorics. Charles
Babbage's research into the cost of
transportation and sorting of mail led to
England's universal "Penny Post" in 1840,
and studies into the dynamical behaviour
of railway vehicles in defence of the
GWR's broad gauge.[7] Beginning in the
20th century, study of inventory
management could be considered the
origin of modern operations research
with economic order quantity developed
by Ford W. Harris in 1913. Operational
research may have originated in the
efforts of military planners during World
War I (convoy theory and Lanchester's
laws). Percy Bridgman brought
operational research to bear on problems
in physics in the 1920s and would later
attempt to extend these to the social
sciences.[8]

Modern operational research originated

at the Bawdsey Research Station in the
UK in 1937 and was the result of an
initiative of the station's superintendent,
A. P. Rowe. Rowe conceived the idea as a
means to analyse and improve the
working of the UK's early warning radar
system, Chain Home (CH). Initially, he
analysed the operating of the radar
equipment and its communication
networks, expanding later to include the
operating personnel's behaviour. This
revealed unappreciated limitations of the
CH network and allowed remedial action
to be taken.[9]

Scientists in the United Kingdom

including Patrick Blackett (later Lord
Blackett OM PRS), Cecil Gordon, Solly
Zuckerman, (later Baron Zuckerman OM,
KCB, FRS), C. H. Waddington, Owen
Wansbrough-Jones, Frank Yates, Jacob
Bronowski and Freeman Dyson, and in
the United States with George Dantzig
looked for ways to make better decisions
in such areas as logistics and training
schedules

Second World War

The modern field of operational research
arose during World War II. In the World
War II era, operational research was
defined as "a scientific method of
providing executive departments with a
quantitative basis for decisions regarding
the operations under their control".[10]
Other names for it included operational
analysis (UK Ministry of Defence from
1962)[11] and quantitative
management.[12]

During the Second World War close to

1,000 men and women in Britain were
engaged in operational research. About
200 operational research scientists
worked for the British Army.[13]
Patrick Blackett worked for several
different organizations during the war.
Early in the war while working for the
Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) he set
up a team known as the "Circus" which
helped to reduce the number of anti-
aircraft artillery rounds needed to shoot
down an enemy aircraft from an average
of over 20,000 at the start of the Battle of
Britain to 4,000 in 1941.[14]

A Liberator in standard RAF green/dark earth/black

night bomber finish as originally used by Coastal
Command
In 1941, Blackett moved from the RAE to
the Navy, after first working with RAF
Coastal Command, in 1941 and then
early in 1942 to the Admiralty.[15]
Blackett's team at Coastal Command's
Operational Research Section (CC-ORS)
included two future Nobel prize winners
and many other people who went on to
be pre-eminent in their fields.[16] They
undertook a number of crucial analyses
that aided the war effort. Britain
introduced the convoy system to reduce
shipping losses, but while the principle of
using warships to accompany merchant
ships was generally accepted, it was
unclear whether it was better for convoys
to be small or large. Convoys travel at the
speed of the slowest member, so small
convoys can travel faster. It was also
argued that small convoys would be
harder for German U-boats to detect. On
the other hand, large convoys could
deploy more warships against an
attacker. Blackett's staff showed that the
losses suffered by convoys depended
largely on the number of escort vessels
present, rather than the size of the
convoy. Their conclusion was that a few
large convoys are more defensible than
many small ones.[17]

While performing an analysis of the

methods used by RAF Coastal Command
to hunt and destroy submarines, one of
the analysts asked what colour the
aircraft were. As most of them were from
Bomber Command they were painted
black for night-time operations. At the
suggestion of CC-ORS a test was run to
see if that was the best colour to
camouflage the aircraft for daytime
operations in the grey North Atlantic
skies. Tests showed that aircraft painted
white were on average not spotted until
they were 20% closer than those painted
black. This change indicated that 30%
more submarines would be attacked and
sunk for the same number of
sightings.[18] As a result of these findings
Coastal Command changed their aircraft
to using white undersurfaces.

Other work by the CC-ORS indicated that

on average if the trigger depth of aerial-
delivered depth charges (DCs) were
changed from 100 feet to 25 feet, the kill
ratios would go up. The reason was that
if a U-boat saw an aircraft only shortly
before it arrived over the target then at
100 feet the charges would do no
damage (because the U-boat wouldn't
have had time to descend as far as 100
feet), and if it saw the aircraft a long way
from the target it had time to alter course
under water so the chances of it being
within the 20-foot kill zone of the charges
was small. It was more efficient to attack
those submarines close to the surface
when the targets' locations were better
known than to attempt their destruction
at greater depths when their positions
could only be guessed. Before the
change of settings from 100 feet to 25
feet, 1% of submerged U-boats were sunk
and 14% damaged. After the change, 7%
were sunk and 11% damaged. (If
submarines were caught on the surface,
even if attacked shortly after
submerging, the numbers rose to 11%
sunk and 15% damaged). Blackett
observed "there can be few cases where
such a great operational gain had been
obtained by such a small and simple
change of tactics".[19]

Map of Kammhuber Line

Bomber Command's Operational

Research Section (BC-ORS), analyzed a
report of a survey carried out by RAF
Bomber Command. For the survey,
Bomber Command inspected all
bombers returning from bombing raids
over Germany over a particular period. All
damage inflicted by German air defences
was noted and the recommendation was
given that armour be added in the most
heavily damaged areas. This
recommendation was not adopted
because the fact that the aircraft
returned with these areas damaged
indicated these areas were not vital, and
adding armour to non-vital areas where
damage is acceptable negatively affects
aircraft performance. Their suggestion to
remove some of the crew so that an
aircraft loss would result in fewer
personnel losses, was also rejected by
RAF command. Blackett's team made the
logical recommendation that the armour
be placed in the areas which were
completely untouched by damage in the
bombers which returned. They reasoned
that the survey was biased, since it only
included aircraft that returned to Britain.
The untouched areas of returning aircraft
were probably vital areas, which, if hit,
would result in the loss of the aircraft.[20]
This story has been disputed,[21] with a
similar damage assessment study
completed in the US by the Statistical
Research Group at Columbia
University[22] and was the result of work
done by Abraham Wald[23].

When Germany organized its air

defences into the Kammhuber Line, it
was realized by the British that if the RAF
bombers were to fly in a bomber stream
they could overwhelm the night fighters
who flew in individual cells directed to
their targets by ground controllers. It was
then a matter of calculating the
statistical loss from collisions against
the statistical loss from night fighters to
calculate how close the bombers should
fly to minimize RAF losses.[24]

The "exchange rate" ratio of output to

input was a characteristic feature of
operational research. By comparing the
number of flying hours put in by Allied
aircraft to the number of U-boat sightings
in a given area, it was possible to
redistribute aircraft to more productive
patrol areas. Comparison of exchange
rates established "effectiveness ratios"
useful in planning. The ratio of 60 mines
laid per ship sunk was common to
several campaigns: German mines in
British ports, British mines on German
routes, and United States mines in
Japanese routes.[25]

Operational research doubled the on-

target bomb rate of B-29s bombing
Japan from the Marianas Islands by
increasing the training ratio from 4 to 10
percent of flying hours; revealed that
wolf-packs of three United States
submarines were the most effective
number to enable all members of the
pack to engage targets discovered on
their individual patrol stations; revealed
that glossy enamel paint was more
effective camouflage for night fighters
than traditional dull camouflage paint
finish, and the smooth paint finish
increased airspeed by reducing skin
friction.[25]

On land, the operational research

sections of the Army Operational
Research Group (AORG) of the Ministry
of Supply (MoS) were landed in
Normandy in 1944, and they followed
British forces in the advance across
Europe. They analyzed, among other
topics, the effectiveness of artillery, aerial
bombing and anti-tank shooting.

After World War II

This section needs expansion.

Learn more

With expanded techniques and growing

awareness of the field at the close of the
war, operational research was no longer
limited to only operational, but was
extended to encompass equipment
procurement, training, logistics and
infrastructure. Operations Research also
grew in many areas other than the
military once scientists learned to apply
its principles to the civilian sector. With
the development of the simplex
algorithm for linear programming in
1947[26] and the development of
computers over the next three decades,
Operations Research can now "solve
problems with hundreds of thousands of
variables and constraints. Moreover, the
large volumes of data required for such
problems can be stored and manipulated
very efficiently."[26]

Problems addressed
Critical path analysis or project
planning: identifying those processes
in a complex project which affect the
overall duration of the project
Floorplanning: designing the layout of
equipment in a factory or components
on a computer chip to reduce
manufacturing time (therefore
reducing cost)
Network optimization: for instance,
setup of telecommunications or power
system networks to maintain quality of
service during outages
Allocation problems
Facility location
Assignment Problems:
Assignment problem
Generalized assignment problem
Quadratic assignment problem
 Weapon target assignment
problem
Bayesian search theory: looking for a
target
Optimal search
Routing, such as determining the
routes of buses so that as few buses
are needed as possible
Supply chain management: managing
the flow of raw materials and products
based on uncertain demand for the
finished products
Project production activities: managing
the flow of work activities in a capital
project in response to system
variability through operations research
tools for variability reduction and
buffer allocation using a combination
of allocation of capacity, inventory and
time[27][28]
Efficient messaging and customer
response tactics
Automation: automating or integrating
robotic systems in human-driven
operations processes
Globalization: globalizing operations
processes in order to take advantage
of cheaper materials, labor, land or
other productivity inputs
Transportation: managing freight
transportation and delivery systems
(Examples: LTL shipping, intermodal
freight transport, travelling salesman
problem)
Scheduling:
Personnel staffing
Manufacturing steps
Project tasks
Network data traffic: these are
known as queueing models or
queueing systems.
Sports events and their television
coverage
Blending of raw materials in oil
refineries
Determining optimal prices, in many
retail and B2B settings, within the
disciplines of pricing science
 Cutting stock problem: Cutting small
items out of bigger ones.

Operational research is also used

extensively in government where
evidence-based policy is used.

Management science
In 1967 Stafford Beer characterized the
field of management science as "the
business use of operations research".[29]
However, in modern times the term
management science may also be used
to refer to the separate fields of
organizational studies or corporate
strategy. Like operational research itself,
management science (MS) is an
interdisciplinary branch of applied
mathematics devoted to optimal
decision planning, with strong links with
economics, business, engineering, and
other sciences. It uses various scientific
research-based principles, strategies, and
analytical methods including
mathematical modeling, statistics and
numerical algorithms to improve an
organization's ability to enact rational
and meaningful management decisions
by arriving at optimal or near optimal
solutions to complex decision problems.
Management scientists help businesses
to achieve their goals using the scientific
methods of operational research.
The management scientist's mandate is
to use rational, systematic, science-
based techniques to inform and improve
decisions of all kinds. Of course, the
techniques of management science are
not restricted to business applications
but may be applied to military, medical,
public administration, charitable groups,
political groups or community groups.

Management science is concerned with

developing and applying models and
concepts that may prove useful in
helping to illuminate management issues
and solve managerial problems, as well
as designing and developing new and
better models of organizational
excellence.[30]

The application of these models within

the corporate sector became known as
management science.[31]

Related fields

Some of the fields that have considerable

overlap with Operations Research and
Management Science include[32]:

Business analytics
Data mining/Data science/Big data
Decision analysis
Decision intelligence
Engineering
Financial engineering
Forecasting
Game theory
Geography/Geographic information
science
Graph theory
Industrial engineering
Logistics
Mathematical modeling
Mathematical optimization
Probability and statistics
Project management
Policy analysis
Simulation
 Social network/Transportation
forecasting models
Stochastic processes
Supply chain management

Applications

Applications are abundant such as in

airlines, manufacturing companies,
service organizations, military branches,
and government. The range of problems
and issues to which it has contributed
insights and solutions is vast. It
includes:[30]

Scheduling (of airlines, trains, buses

etc.)
Assignment (assigning crew to flights,
trains or buses; employees to projects;
commitment and dispatch of power
generation facilities)
Facility location (deciding most
appropriate location for new facilities
such as warehouse; factory or fire
station)
Hydraulics & Piping Engineering
(managing flow of water from
reservoirs)
Health Services (information and
supply chain management)
Game Theory (identifying,
understanding; developing strategies
adopted by companies)
 Urban Design
Computer Network Engineering
(packet routing; timing; analysis)
Telecom & Data Communication
Engineering (packet routing; timing;
analysis)
[33]

Management is also concerned with so-

called 'soft-operational analysis' which
concerns methods for strategic planning,
strategic decision support, problem
structuring methods. In dealing with
these sorts of challenges, mathematical
modeling and simulation may not be
appropriate or may not suffice.
Therefore, during the past 30 years, a
number of non-quantified modeling
methods have been developed. These
include:

stakeholder based approaches

including metagame analysis and
drama theory
morphological analysis and various
forms of influence diagrams
cognitive mapping
strategic choice
robustness analysis

Societies and journals

Societies

The International Federation of

Operational Research Societies
(IFORS)[34] is an umbrella organization
for operational research societies
worldwide, representing approximately
50 national societies including those in
the US,[35] UK,[36] France,[37] Germany,
Italy,[38] Canada,[39] Australia,[40] New
Zealand,[41] Philippines,[42] India,[43]
Japan and South Africa.[44] The
constituent members of IFORS form
regional groups, such as that in
Europe.[45] Other important operational
research organizations are Simulation
Interoperability Standards Organization
(SISO)[46] and Interservice/Industry
Training, Simulation and Education
Conference (I/ITSEC)[47]
In 2004 the US-based organization
INFORMS began an initiative to market
the OR profession better, including a
website entitled The Science of Better[48]
which provides an introduction to OR and
examples of successful applications of
OR to industrial problems. This initiative
has been adopted by the Operational
Research Society in the UK, including a
website entitled Learn about OR.[49]

Journals

The Institute for Operations Research

and the Management Sciences
(INFORMS) publishes thirteen scholarly
journals about operations research,
including the top two journals in their
class, according to 2005 Journal Citation
Reports.[50] They are:

Decision Analysis[51]
Information Systems Research[52]
INFORMS Journal on Computing[53]
INFORMS Transactions on Education[54]
(an open access journal)
Interfaces[55]
Management Science: A Journal of the
Institute for Operations Research and
the Management Sciences
Manufacturing & Service Operations
Management
Marketing Science
Mathematics of Operations Research
Operations Research: A Journal of the
Institute for Operations Research and
the Management Sciences
Organization Science[56]
Service Science[57]
Transportation Science
Other journals
4OR-A Quarterly Journal of Operations
Research: jointly published the Belgian,
French and Italian Operations
Research Societies (Springer);
Decision Sciences published by Wiley-
Blackwell on behalf of the Decision
Sciences Institute
European Journal of Operational
Research (EJOR): Founded in 1975 and
is presently by far the largest
operational research journal in the
world, with its around 9,000 pages of
published papers per year. In 2004, its
total number of citations was the
second largest amongst Operational
Research and Management Science
journals;
INFOR Journal: published and
sponsored by the Canadian
Operational Research Society;
International Journal of Operations
Research and Information Systems
(IJORIS): an official publication of the
Information Resources Management
Association, published quarterly by IGI
Global;[58]
Journal of Defense Modeling and
Simulation (JDMS): Applications,
Methodology, Technology: a quarterly
journal devoted to advancing the
science of modeling and simulation as
it relates to the military and
defense.[59]
Journal of the Operational Research
Society (JORS): an official journal of
The OR Society; this is the oldest
continuously published journal of OR in
the world, published by Taylor &
Francis;
Military Operations Research (MOR):
published by the Military Operations
Research Society;
Omega - The International Journal of
Management Science;
Operations Research Letters;
Opsearch: official journal of the
Operational Research Society of India;
OR Insight: a quarterly journal of The
OR Society, published by Palgrave;[60]
Production and Operations
Management, the official journal of the
Production and Operations
Management Society
TOP: the official journal of the Spanish
Society of Statistics and Operations
 Research.[61]

See also
Operations research topics
Black box analysis
Dynamic programming
Inventory theory
Optimal maintenance
Real options valuation

Operations researchers
Operations researchers (category)
George Dantzig
Leonid Kantorovich
Tjalling Koopmans
Russell L. Ackoff
Stafford Beer
Alfred Blumstein
C. West Churchman

William W. Cooper
Robert Dorfman
Richard M. Karp
Ramayya Krishnan
Frederick W. Lanchester
Thomas L. Magnanti
Alvin E. Roth
Peter Whittle

Related fields
Behavioral operations research
Big data
Business engineering
Business process management
Database normalization
Engineering management
Geographic information systems
Industrial engineering
Industrial organization

Managerial economics
Military simulation
Power system simulation
Project Production Management
Reliability engineering
Scientific management
Search-based software engineering
Simulation modeling
System safety
 Wargaming

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Further reading
Classic books and articles

R. E. Bellman, Dynamic Programming,

Princeton University Press, Princeton,
1957
Abraham Charnes, William W. Cooper,
Management Models and Industrial
Applications of Linear Programming,
Volumes I and II, New York, John Wiley
& Sons, 1961
Abraham Charnes, William W. Cooper,
A. Henderson, An Introduction to Linear
Programming, New York, John Wiley &
Sons, 1953
C. West Churchman, Russell L. Ackoff
& E. L. Arnoff, Introduction to
Operations Research, New York: J.
Wiley and Sons, 1957
George B. Dantzig, Linear Programming
and Extensions, Princeton, Princeton
University Press, 1963
Lester K. Ford, Jr., D. Ray Fulkerson,
Flows in Networks, Princeton,
Princeton University Press, 1962
Jay W. Forrester, Industrial Dynamics,
Cambridge, MIT Press, 1961
L. V. Kantorovich, "Mathematical
Methods of Organizing and Planning
Production" Management Science, 4,
1960, 266–422
Ralph Keeney, Howard Raiffa,
Decisions with Multiple Objectives:
Preferences and Value Tradeoffs, New
York, John Wiley & Sons, 1976
H. W. Kuhn, "The Hungarian Method for
the Assignment Problem," Naval
Research Logistics Quarterly, 1–2,
1955, 83–97
H. W. Kuhn, A. W. Tucker, "Nonlinear
Programming," pp. 481–492 in
Proceedings of the Second Berkeley
Symposium on Mathematical Statistics
and Probability
B. O. Koopman, Search and Screening:
General Principles and Historical
Applications, New York, Pergamon
Press, 1980
Tjalling C. Koopmans, editor, Activity
Analysis of Production and Allocation,
New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1951
Charles C. Holt, Franco Modigliani,
John F. Muth, Herbert A. Simon,
Planning Production, Inventories, and
 Work Force, Englewood Cliffs, NJ,
Prentice-Hall, 1960
Philip M. Morse, George E. Kimball,
Methods of Operations Research, New
York, MIT Press and John Wiley &
Sons, 1951
Robert O. Schlaifer, Howard Raiffa,
Applied Statistical Decision Theory,
Cambridge, Division of Research,
Harvard Business School, 1961

Classic textbooks

Frederick S. Hillier & Gerald J.

Lieberman, Introduction to Operations
Research, McGraw-Hill: Boston MA;
10th Edition, 2014
 Taha, Hamdy A., "Operations Research:
An Introduction", Pearson, 10th Edition,
2016
Robert J. Thierauf & Richard A. Grosse,
"Decision Making Through Operations
Research", John Wiley & Sons, INC,
1970
Harvey M. Wagner, Principles of
Operations Research, Englewood Cliffs,
Prentice-Hall, 1969

History

Saul I. Gass, Arjang A. Assad, An

Annotated Timeline of Operations
Research: An Informal History. New
York, Kluwer Academic Publishers,
2005.
Saul I. Gass (Editor), Arjang A. Assad
(Editor), Profiles in Operations
Research: Pioneers and Innovators.
Springer, 2011
Maurice W. Kirby (Operational
Research Society (Great Britain)).
Operational Research in War and
Peace: The British Experience from the
1930s to 1970, Imperial College Press,
2003. ISBN 1-86094-366-7, ISBN 978-1-
86094-366-9
J. K. Lenstra, A. H. G. Rinnooy Kan, A.
Schrijver (editors) History of
Mathematical Programming: A
Collection of Personal Reminiscences,
North-Holland, 1991
 Charles W. McArthur, Operations
Analysis in the U.S. Army Eighth Air
Force in World War II, History of
Mathematics, Vol. 4, Providence,
American Mathematical Society, 1990
C. H. Waddington, O. R. in World War 2:
Operational Research Against the U-
boat, London, Elek Science, 1973.

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Operations research.

Wikiquote has quotations related to:

Operations research

What is Operations Research?

 International Federation of Operational
Research Societies
The Institute for Operations Research
and the Management Sciences
(INFORMS)
Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S.
Department of Labor Bureau of Labor
Statistics

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