Effective Operational Research within the Organization: Corporate Planning,Sessions 1 and 2

The paper describes a 5-year sequence of research activities and the associated stages of implementation of resulting “practical” methods for relating standards of service and manpower requirements in an airline's telephone reservations offices. It goes on to review some important reappraisals of the standards of service in terms of their effects on the customer and on the direct cost of operation of such facilities. It also describes work which is in progress to improve the method of forecasting telephone workload, and to produce a fully automated system for budgeting and planning. The paper concludes by drawing some lessons from the experiences gained over the 5-year period which may help others engaged in similar studies.     

Patients,Hospitals and Operational Research

Journal of the Operational Research Society -     

Operational Research and Management

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and if possible to dispel the industrialist's misunderstanding of operational research. The author lists some of the varied ideas held by industrialists of operational research including several which are contradictory, as for example (a) That operational research is new and revolutionary; and (b) That operational research proves nothing new and has always been practised without being so named.A number of suggestions are then made and developed, which should lead to a better understanding. These include, clearer definitions of operational research and a better adaptation of the specialized literature to the needs of industrial management, with particular emphasis on the publication of real rather than synthetic case histories. Headings of sections are:

1. 1
   The attitude of industrialists.
    
2. 2
   The exact nature of operational research.
    
3. 3
   Problems, criteria, models.
    
4. 4
   The practice of operational research in business.
    

     

Economists and Operational Research

The academic background of OR scientists is overwhelmingly in science, engineering and mathematics. This paper argues that economics graduates should be recruited into the profession in far greater numbers than at present. The contribution to OR of a scientific training is compared with the value of a background in economics, in terms both of project work undertaken and of research methodology.     

Operational Research and Decision-Making

This paper was originally presented under the title "Decision" at the Third Operational Research Conference of the Universities of Lancaster and Sussex held at Windermere in April 1968. In it, the question of what is meant by "improved decision-making" is examined and the ways in which operational research can and does contribute to this are discussed. In the course of this the "American School" of Decision Analysis is reviewed. The paper concludes with some suggestions on computational procedures. This paper was written as a vehicle for discussion. In order to stimulate this, the authors have been deliberately provocative and presented an extreme point of view. The paper which follows this is a condensed version of some of the discussion which took place at the Conference. The authors would welcome further contributions.     

Operational Research and Evolution

A recent paper presented an operational research solution to the problem of evolution, which applies to both social and biological systems alike. This paper discusses some of the broader methodological issues connected with evolutionary systems, and highlights the significance of this operational research contribution to the development of scientific methodology in general.     

Supranational Operational Research

Journal of the Operational Research Society -     

Operational Research and Formal Education

This paper, which was originally presented at the Second International Working Seminar of the University of Sussex in April 1978, gives an overview of Operational Research as applied to formal education in the United States. It first reviews past work in the field, much of which dates from the mid 1960's, when administrators first turned to O.R. for resolution of education's peculiar crisis situation. From this base, it develops a projection of an attainable state of the science and a proposal for its attainment.     

Basic Operational Research

Journal of the Operational Research Society -