Operations research is the discipline of applying mathematical modeling, statistics and optimization to help organizations make better decisions about complex systems, particularly the allocation of limited resources. It emerged as an organized field during the Second World War, when British and American scientists were assembled to apply quantitative methods to military logistics, radar deployment and convoy routing, and the tools developed, including linear programming and queuing theory, were carried into civilian industry, transportation and supply chain management after the war. George Dantzig's development of the simplex method for linear programming in 1947 remains one of the field's most consequential results.
Facts
Founded Year Central QuestionHow to find the extreme values of a real-world objective, the maximum of profit, performance or yield, or the minimum of loss, risk or cost. 1 ScopeOperations research is a branch of applied mathematics that develops and applies analytical methods such as modeling, statistics and optimization to improve management and decision making. 1 SignificanceOperations research grew out of military planning before the Second World War, and its techniques have since spread to problems across many industries, notably industrial engineering. 1 Operations Research
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1. Operations research (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead section, definition sentence
is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and decision-making.
Lead section, scope sentence
Operations research is often concerned with determining the extreme values of some real-world objective: the maximum (of profit, performance, or yield) or minimum (of loss, risk, or cost).
Lead section, closing sentence
Originating in military efforts before World War II, its techniques have grown to concern problems in a variety of industries.
Historical origins
Modern operational research originated at the Bawdsey Research Station in the UK in 1937
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