it is a dicipline aiming to solve problems,reducing costs and maximizing profits by treating with basic constraints and help to make better decisions by wide range of problem-solving techniques and methods

Dear Charles,

Operations Research has certainly evolved over a number of years and as you rightly point out, various definitions have been put forward. The best place to explore the emerging and evolving assumptions around the broader definitions of “Operations Research” and it’s linkages to a number of discipline areas would be to examine its growth over a certain period of time as interpreted from various disciplines and industries. One such recent example is the following article from the ‘Hospitality Management or ‘Service Industry’ perspective:

O’Neill, J.W. and McGinley, S. (2014) "Operations research from 1913 to 2013: The Ford assembly line to hospitality industry innovation", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 26 Iss: 5, pp.663 - 678.

The above article will provide you some insights into how the scholars the principles of ‘operations research’ has evolved over a period of time (100 years) as well as the application of the associated principles. Furthermore, it is a good and most recent source on the review of literature albeit from the services industry.

On the other hand, it might worth revisiting how the field of ‘Operations Research (OR)’ developed. The article by Fuller and Mansour (2003) although 11 years old, still sheds some light as it brings into the picture the connection of Operations Research to another related filed of Operations Management (OM).

Fuller, J.A. and Mansour, A.H. (2003) "Operations management and operations research: a historical and relational perspective", Management Decision, Vol. 41 Iss: 4, pp.422 – 42.

While this might be not relevant, however the similarities in the best way to tackle your questions would be through the lenses of ‘Operations Management’ as articulated by MacCarthy et al. (2013) recent study. The key issues raised within that paper also emerged from the changing world (economically, technologically, politically and socially) and what this means for the ‘operations management’ academic discipline. I would certainly recommend having a read at the following highlighted article as it might share some common denominators and approaches in tackling the issues related to ‘Operations Research’.

MacCarthy, B.L., Lewis, M., Voss, C. and Narasimhan, R. (2013), "The same old methodologies? Perspectives on OM research in the post-lean age", International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 33, No. 7, pp.934-956.

Trust the above information is useful.

Regards,

Nicholas

This might just be wishful thinking, but anyway here it goes.

Operations research was born in a war operations context. But while war might solve some local problems, it might also create new ones, sometimes worst. So most of the times it does not lead to a global optimum. I like to think of todays Operations Research keeping changing from the subordination of existing methods to a triad of (hierarchy of decision makers+local objectives+economic or military benefits) towards a triad of (network of decision makers+global objectives+social or political objectives). In an interconnected world like ours it is becoming easier to understand the structure and the way things influence each other (people, goods, information, ideas), across the levels of the organizations. This new understanding is made possible by Network science. This is the era of a new insight into how things are connected, which might lead to new ways of figuring out what their overall contribution is. So I believe today's Operations Research faces a challenge in answering the following question, which applies to many settings:

"How do we solve each one of our local problems in a way that globally leads to the optimum for everybody?"

Besides all traditional applications this is the kind of rationality through which I believe Operations Research can develop to give its best to modern society. Or maybe it is just a line of thought that I like.

Though indeed, the definitions of OR vary, in most people´s minds, OR is associated with a set of highly-advanced mathematical and statistical techniques. Or simply put: "hard" stuff. And, to some extent, they are right. This particular view emerged from the fact that the focus of OR was placed on the quantitative approach to problems related to efficiency of aerial bombardment during the WW2.

Nevertheless, it is important we remembered that the main feature of OR is that it is an approach which seeks to help people make better decisions by means of facilitating thinking and problem solving (Mitchell, 1993). In the end, this is the essence of OR, regardless of the approach we embrace, be it "hard" or "soft".