Operations research is important subject which can be used to solve the problems of the organization by breaking problems into small basic components.

Dear Modestus,

I suggest you to see links in topic.

-Advantages of Operations Research OR in Decision Making

kalyan-city.blogspot.com/.../advantages-of-operations-research-or-...

-Operational Research: A Study of Decision Making Process - jmest

www.jmest.org/wp-content/uploads/JMESTN42351698.pdf

-Importance of Operation Research in decision making - Ques10

www.ques10.com/.../importance-of-operation-research-in-decision...

-Operational Research Approach to Decision Making - ResearchGate

https://www.researchgate.net/.../226262902_Operational_Research...

-importance of operations research in management practices

www.bookmanjournals.com/.../7_Sohan_Singh_Rawat_29_Resear...

Best regards

Thank you Dr. M. Lafifi for your time and prompt response . The information you provided are detailed and very useful. Regards, Modestus.

OR is a scientific tool that equip researchers and practitioners with the relevant knowledge about the ideal solutions to problems. The word "ideal" implies that such solutions are subject to minor or no changes during their implementations. This is where expert judgments are needed to perfect the outcomes of OR models.

Regards.

Thank you for your prompt response Dr. Desmond. As an Engr. I feel the use of these OR models or scientific tech. is time wasting. Can't we just adopt the rule of thumb or mental guesswork in our day to day decision making process?

Due to the complex relationship among the variables in a problem, rule of thumb will not always generate near optimal or optimal solution to a problem. For exmple, can a rule of thumb determine the optimal distance for a salesman travelling problem? However, it can be combined with the solution from a model in making an informed decision.

Thank you for your prompt response and valuable comment Dr. Desmond E. Ighravwe. I am still worried about the time and complexity of the scientific technique called OR. Can't we really do without it in decision making?

Operations research is the science of the best. Using mathematical modelling and computing to solve different problems and to get the optimal solutions and this is the contribution of this branche of mathematics, is to help making decision based on scientific methods.

Thank you Houda Oulha for your contribution. Most company Managers feel the diff. OR techniques are difficult to implement. Do you suggest they continue with their easy to use classical techniques?

Is very useful, for example to get the optimal product quantities, to manage the inventory (How mutch products to ask the supplier and when), to understand the behavior of a queue line, to get optimal policies for management of an organization, to get the best decision when you have some alternative options, to get the optimal programme of deliveries from some sources to some destinies, and so on

Thank you J. M. Izar for your your precious time for valuable answer.

Regards

Modestus

Modestus: consider a model that is built to match organ donors and patients at a hospital, or a service company that wants to collaborate on the usage of freight trains or long-haul trucks. A rule-of-thumb can simply not be designed, as there are too many possible decisions that can be made, while only a handful are actually feasible as well as reasonable. Using a sketchy model simply will not work, when decisions are complex.

I have been part of a team that manufacture aircraft engine components. A rule-of-thumb may take 1 second to reach a decision on the ordering of operations, but those will be extremely lousy, in the sense that the production cell would not be utilized well at all. And since there are batches to be made, you get that lousy, time-consuming schedule over and over. Since time is crucial the actual model used provides a proven almost optimal ordering of tasks among many million possibilities, including some manual labour steps, and preventive maintenance actions while the process progresses. I can assure you that the process works just fine - it takes a coffee break for the dedicated NP-hard production model to be ready with an almost optimal answer, and that's perfectly fine. But you would never be able to reach a good schedule with some rule-of-thumb.

And to iterate on a more familiar topic - the TSP (which in fact is a simpler problem than the real problem I discuss above) has had plenty of heuristics attached to it. Have we found a guaranteed good one that is also fast? No.

Mathematical optimization problems, as well as other optimization problems belong to the OR. Therefore, the OR is basically an optimized decision tool, and may be considered the core of scientific-based decision making approach. You may search the wikipedia for the history of the OR as it provides an in-depth understanding of the motivation of starting the OR science.

Michael Patriksson,

Thank you for your time and detailed information. You have really touched the importance of OR in engineering field. I am glad to know that using a sketchy model in decision making will not work, especially when decisions are complex. Meaning OR is very necessary when taking complex and uncertain decisions. I also understand from the information you provided that OR saves time. Thanks your information is helpful.

Regards,

Modestus

Mohamed EL-Shimy,

Thank you very much for your time and vital information. I have searched the wikipedia for the history of the OR as you suggested. I got quite interesting definitions and OR applications .

Regards

Modestus

You are welcome. Wishing you a pleasant time with the OR.

Operations research is much more useful in decision making and problem solving in industries. It can be applied in any sector. Oil and Gas, bottling companies, manufacturing and production companies and so on.

Operations research is important subject which can be used to solve the problems of the organization by breaking problems into small basic components.

operations research is useful precisely to take decisions in organizations and business, because it applies optimization techniques to find the optimal solution of a problem, for example to manage a queu, to know the optimal quantity to ask to replenish the inventory, to find optimal policies of machine maintenence and replacement and so on