The interface between OR/MS and decision theory

The purpose of this work is to review new diretioons in the theory of nonlinear utility forms and to illustrate their development for OR/MS types of problems. The illustrations are borrowed from strategic information analysis, operations management, and health care management.     

Rethinking tradeoffs and OR/MS methodology

The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of a process known as the ‘evaporating cloud’ (EC) as a way of enhancing OR/MS modelling. While other authors have described the use of the EC process to explore the tradeoffs in a traditional Economic Order Quantity model, this paper demonstrates the use of the EC with a facilities location problem, which was originally solved via mixed integer programming. We relate our findings to OR/MS modelling in general, and argue that the EC could contribute effectively to different phases of the problem-solving process, for example, aiding the problem-structuring phase and helping to find better solutions in many OR/MS modelling situations. We demonstrate that the EC is a valuable tool to use in modelling practice as a problem-structuring tool, as a way of dealing specifically with tradeoffs, and that it can therefore be a useful complement to OR/MS methodology, and contribute to OR/MS practice and teaching.     

A summary of OR/MS software on microcomputers

This paper provides a summary of some OR/MS software for microcomputers. Lists of packages in many management science techniques are included. A bibliography of other papers is also included. We also summarize the general features of packages in each category. Finally, we mention a few sources to help the reader keep up with the developments in this area.     

A summary of OR/MS software on microcomputers

This paper provides a summary of some OR/MS software for microcomputers. Lists of packages in many management science techniques are included. A bibliography of other papers is also included. We also summarize the general features of packages in each category. Finally, we mention a few sources to help the reader keep up with the developments in this area.     

Ethics in OR/MS: past,present and future

The pervasiveness and impact on society and on every day human life of technology has led to a growing awareness that science and technology cannot be considered above or beyond the realm of value judgements and hence of ethics. This is especially true for Operations Research/Management Science (OR/MS), that particular science which is concerned with methodologies for scientifically deciding how to design and operate man-machine systems in an optimal way, usually under conditions requiring the allocation of scarce resources. Here we try to give a historical account of the growing interest for ethics within the OR/MS community from its birth to present days. Starting from attempts to define models and codes of ethical behaviour in our profession, the OR/MS community has arrived at more fundamental questions about the ethical responsibility it faces in a world of growing inequalities and in which the ever greater stress that human activities impose on the environment puts at risk the very survival of human kind. This paper appeared in 4OR 2, 95–110, 2004.     

Ethics in OR/MS: Past,present and future

The pervasiveness and impact on society and on every day human life of technology has led to a growing awareness that science and technology cannot be considered above or beyond the realm of value judgements and hence of ethics. This is especially true for Operations Research / Management Science (OR/MS), that particular science which is concerned with methodologies for scientifically deciding how to design and operate man-machine systems in an optimal way, usually under conditions requiring the allocation of scarce resources. Here we try to give a historical account of the growing interest for ethics within the OR/MS community from its birth to present days. Starting from attempts to define models and codes of ethical behaviour in our profession, the OR/MS community has arrived at more fundamental questions about the ethical responsibility it faces in a world of growing inequalities and in which the ever greater stress that human activities impose on the environment puts at risk the very survival of human kind.     

On the roles of OR/MS practitioners in supporting strategy

This paper presents an exploratory account of how Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) practitioners understand their role in supporting an organisational strategy process. The role of strategy support is characterised by five dimensions: the activities supported within the strategy process; the nature of support provided; the orientation of the support provided; the tools used in providing support; and the nature of the relationship between consultant and client. The research draws on case studies of four OR/MS practitioners working as internal and as external consultants. The work of the practitioners is mapped onto the framework and gaps are identified. The research proposes a further dimension, namely, ‘the purpose of the support provided’, and suggests four purposeful support roles adopted by practitioners in supporting strategy within organisations: sensemaking/sensegiving; decision support tool development; problem solving/solution exploration; and process facilitation. The paper concludes with suggestions for further research.     

Contemporary OR/MS in strategy development and policy-making: some reflections

It is now widely accepted that strategy-making and policy development require both rational analysis and an ability to work with insights that are sometimes hard to pin down. Can operational research (OR) contribute to this process in which soft and hard are interwoven? Simon's longstanding distinction between substantive and procedural rationality is helpful in addressing this question. Undoubtedly, OR has made major contributions to strategy development, although there has been a marked tendency to argue for even greater use of substantive rationality. In addition, some soft OR methods are also successfully used in strategy development as ways to provide procedural rationality. Add to this the suggestion of Sagasti that metaphor and language are powerful tools in strategizing, then there is a powerful case for the greater use of OR/management science is strategy development and policy-making.     

Managing Reforms on a Large Scale: What Role for OR/MS?

In this paper evidence is presented regarding the degree to which social reforms have been systematically managed by the Public Sector in Greece between 1975-1992. The findings reported here concur with the findings of others that, by and large, in developing countries, important social reforms tend not to be systematically handled. A twofold explanation is advanced for what seems to be an inverse relationship between the importance of social reforms and the use of OR/MS techniques for their management. First, the subsidiary role of OR/MS techniques in both developing and developed countries is partly due to the conflict-ridden and complex nature of important social reforms, which are not as amenable to systematic analysis as small-scale reforms. It is also partly due to the competitive nature of liberal democracies which compels governments to use social policies not only in a problem-solving mode but also in a tactical mode. Secondly, the low degrees of bureaucratization and rationalization that characterize developing countries, in particular, account for seeing social reforms not so much as manifestations of rational calculation designed to solve problems but as political tools in the service of their masters. It is concluded that OR/MS may be useful in developing countries not so much for its techniques as for its ideology; not for what it is but for what it stands for.     

Beyond problem structuring methods: reinventing the future of OR/MS

Some of the most influential pioneers of OR felt disappointed by the way it developed in the 1960s and 1970s. In their view, the original intention to create a holistic, interdisciplinary science addressed to strategic problems was betrayed. Problem structuring methods (PSMs) have made a significant contribution to taking OR/MS forward again in the direction charted by those pioneers. From a theoretical perspective, however, it is clear that the opportunities provided by PSMs tend to be limited to those drawn from the interpretive paradigm. That is only one way of adding to the positivist/quantitative approach of classical OR/MS. This paper suggests that OR has an obligation to explore a wider range of theoretical options and to convert the possibilities offered by all of these into a form that managers and management scientists can use. Only in this way can OR be reinvented to live up to the ambitions of its founders.     

OR/MS decision support models for the specialty crops industry: a literature review

Specialty crops (fruits, vegetables, grapes and wine, ornamentals—nursery and floriculture—tree nuts, berries, and dried fruits) comprise a substantial—and growing—portion of agribusiness. Still, the industry is facing a number of severe problems that must be resolved to sustain it and promote its continued growth. This paper is intended to provide growers and distribution managers insights into the variety of decision support possible and benchmarks for improvements they can help to achieve and to provide academic researchers with insights into industry operations and a vision of research needs.     

Supporting the strategy process: a survey of UK OR/MS practitioners

This paper reports the results of an online survey conducted with practitioner members of the UK Operational Research (OR) Society. The purpose of the survey was to explore the current practice of supporting the strategy process in terms of activities supported and tools used. The results of the survey are compared to those of previous surveys to explore developments in, inter alia, the use of management/strategy tools and ‘soft’ Operational Research/Management Science (OR/MS) tools. The survey results demonstrate that OR practitioners actively support the strategy process within their organisations. While a wide variety of tools, drawn from the OR/MS and management/strategy fields, are used to support the strategy process within organisations, the findings suggest that soft OR/MS tools are not regularly used. The findings also demonstrate that tools are combined to support the strategy process from both within and across the OR/MS and management/strategy fields. The paper ends by identifying a number of areas for further research.     

Review of recent developments in OR/MS research in disaster operations management

Potential consequences of disasters involve overwhelming economic losses, large affected populations and serious environmental damages. Given these devastating effects, there is an increasing interest in developing measures in order to diminish the possible impact of disasters, which gave rise to the field of disaster operations management (DOM). In this paper we review recent OR/MS research in DOM. Our work is a continuation of a previous review from Altay and Green (2006). Our purpose is to evaluate how OR/MS research in DOM has evolved in the last years and to what extent the gaps identified by Altay and Green (2006) have been covered. Our findings show no drastic changes or developments in the field of OR/MS in DOM since the publication of Altay and Green (2006). Additionally to our comparative analysis, we present an original evaluation about the most common assumptions in recent OR/MS literature in DOM. Based on our findings we provide future research directions in order to make improvements in the areas where lack of research is detected.     

Thoughts on the Use (and Abuse) of OR/MS in the Planning and Management of Development (Or: Can OR/MS Help in the Planning and Management of Revolutions?)

The promises of OR/MS for the planning and management of development have been heralded by many. However, there are also many pitfalls and problems involved in the use of these techniques in less developed countries. This essay examines these dangers and suggests some avenues for research in order to make OR/MS more amenable to the needs of the underdeveloped countries.     

The regularity for nonlinear parabolic systems of p-Laplacian type with critical growth

We study the Hölder regularity of weak solutions to the evolutionary p  -Laplacian system with critical growth on the gradient. We establish a natural criterion for proving that a small solution and its gradient are locally Hölder continuous almost everywhere. Actually our regularity result recovers the classical result in the case p=2$p=2$ [16] and can be applied to study the regularity of the heat flow for m-dimensional H-systems as well as the m-harmonic flow.