Operational Research in the Steel Company of Wales Limited

This article is the first of a series in which it is planned to describe and discuss the work of a number of operational research departments in the United Kingdom. Operational research in the Steel Company of Wales is now over 10 years of age, and employs some 60 staff working as a Company function in the two major operating Divisions. It is a general service to management, giving what advice it can on problems which managers themselves consider important. It is characterized by a broadly based, scientific staff, embracing between them a range of techniques, including those of method study. Particular attention is paid to statistics, mathematics and electronic computing, in support of both operational research projects and more technological work. Over the years, the department has achieved an appreciable degree of practical success and its future is attractively bright.