What do you mean for a specialty? I think that the Operation Research is one of the most important field to apply the more engineering elements for the optimization of industrial systems.

I quite agree with Marcello that Operation Research can be classified as one of the most relevant subject in today's dispensation. Its applications cut across management, engineering, manufacturing, law, biomedical, sciences, arts, etc. OR is mostly adopted for optimization of data set. Therefore it should encouraged to be a stand alone degree course taught in all schools especially the Universities to improve management and scientific reasoning of solving problems. In this respect, OR is a specialty in the present context.

It is very relevant and very important. Decision makers will go blind without OR/OM. The objectivity of the methods used in OR ensures lesser human subjectivity and more rational decision making. 

Dear Colegue, I think that OM/OR have to change and develop in a dynamic thinking, using new technologies to solve complex problems.

Hello,

The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) defines OR as the science of better, because by implementing OR related approaches we can make better decisions. In fact, OR is not just a tool but  a toolbox, which includes Mathematical Optimization, Simulation, Queuing Theory, Expert Systems and etc. OR helps managers and engineers to decide better without putting their processes at risk. 

Regards,

Arian

https://www.informs.org/About-INFORMS/What-is-Operations-Research

OR is relevant in the present and also relevant in future. You can not imagine the Mechanical Engg, Industrial Engg., System Engg., Electrical Engg, Computer Science, Civil Engg.........etc without OR.

I definetely agree with Vinod Kumar Mishra.

There are many different fields where OR is being extensively used.  and as Vincent points out ir cut across very different disciplines as in Medicine, Engineering, Economy,, Finances, jManagement, just to name a few.

As examples of this assert are the  Critical Path Method for programming small and complex undertakings, as well as Mathematical  Programming, that helps industries and enterprises to take right decisions, and from this point of view decision-making is nowadays more important than ever in many different fields

Not so long ago important decisions about the convenience of undertaking or not a project were only based on estimating money return  using indicators of profitability such as IRR and NPV, but ignoring social, environmental and quality issues.

Linear Programming plays an inevitable role in determining the best project from a portfolio taking into consideration those above mentioned aspects. Combined with statistics as well as Montecarlo method it is possible to predict within a reasonable degree of accuracy how the outcome will be..

I believe that it would me necessary to teach OR  as a mandatory subject in many more universities and careers. because amongst otrher things it forces the thinking and the analysis of complex issues

I think That OR is a speciality by itself. In many universities one can find master in OR. Also it is an important field in other domains (like manufacturing...) 

In our case (Industrial Engineering degree) we have at least 4 courses (180hrs) that deals directly with OR

It is definitely a subject worth pursuing . It adds value to your career.

OR also involves dealing with social challenges. In particular, Community OR (COR) is a well established discipline in UK. A stream of COR has been a forum where to present works in the annual conference of the Operational Research Society. It is important to notice that this is not new at all. For instance, Churchman (1970) proposed to look at OR as "the securing of improvement in social systems by means of scientificmethod".

Basically Operation Research is related to optimization of resources for any activity. so it is obvious that OR is very important in now-days specially in the industries. Because in industries we have to optimize the use of different resources for increasing profit. 

I think the term "Operations Research" is not so much a "discipline" or a "speciality" as it is a toolset. What an interesting question you're asking, though.

No single department in an institution should "claim" OR as their domain. Unfortunately that does happen, and there is much of the OR basics that will get duplicated if each interested department teaches it in-house. But the proverbial "devil" is indeed in the details. When you get to domain-specific applications, the "tool" comes to its rightful use, but only in the hands of an expert. A statistician may not have an appreciation for complex capacitated arc routing problem (like waste collection), and similarly an industrial engineer building intricate simulation models of a bottling line or mining operation may not appreciate whether the solution space is concave or convex.

More recently I also see departments "fight" about where "Data Science" should be housed.

It is because OR is such a "generally applicable" tool that it can (and should) be applied in "specialist" domains.