1.

INTRODUCTION TO OR

1.1 TERMINOLOGY
The British/Europeans refer to "operational research", the Americans to "operations
research" - but both are often shortened to just "OR" (which is the term we will use).
Another term which is used for this field is "management science" ("MS"). The
Americans sometimes combine the terms OR and MS together and say "OR/MS" or
"ORMS".
Yet other terms sometimes used are "industrial engineering" ("IE"), "decision
science" ("DS"), and “problem solving”.
In recent years there has been a move towards a standardization upon a single term
for the field, namely the term "OR".
“Operations Research (Management Science) is a scientific approach to decision
making that seeks to best design and operate a system, usually under conditions
requiring the allocation of scarce resources.”
A system is an organization of interdependent components that work together to
accomplish the goal of the system.

1.2 THE METHODOLOGY OF OR

When OR is used to solve a problem of an organization, the following seven step
procedure should be followed:
Step 1. Formulate the Problem
OR analyst first defines the organization's problem. Defining the problem includes
specifying the organization's objectives and the parts of the organization (or system)
that must be studied before the problem can be solved.
Step 2. Observe the System
Next, the analyst collects data to estimate the values of parameters that affect the
organization's problem. These estimates are used to develop (in Step 3) and
evaluate (in Step 4) a mathematical model of the organization's problem.
Step 3. Formulate a Mathematical Model of the Problem
The analyst, then, develops a mathematical model (in other words an idealized
representation) of the problem. In this class, we describe many mathematical
techniques that can be used to model systems.
Step 4. Verify the Model and Use the Model for Prediction
The analyst now tries to determine if the mathematical model developed in Step 3 is
an accurate representation of reality. To determine how well the model fits reality,
one determines how valid the model is for the current situation.
Step 5. Select a Suitable Alternative
Given a model and a set of alternatives, the analyst chooses the alternative (if there
is one) that best meets the organization's objectives.
Sometimes the set of alternatives is subject to certain restrictions and constraints. In
many situations, the best alternative may be impossible or too costly to determine.
Step 6. Present the Results and Conclusions of the Study
In this step, the analyst presents the model and the recommendations from Step 5 to
the decision making individual or group. In some situations, one might present
several alternatives and let the organization choose the decision maker(s) choose
the one that best meets her/his/their needs.
After presenting the results of the OR study to the decision maker(s), the analyst may
find that s/he does not (or they do not) approve of the recommendations. This may
result from incorrect definition of the problem on hand or from failure to involve
decision maker(s) from the start of the project. In this case, the analyst should return
to Step 1, 2, or 3.
Step 7. Implement and Evaluate Recommendation
If the decision maker(s) has accepted the study, the analyst aids in implementing the
recommendations. The system must be constantly monitored (and updated
dynamically as the environment changes) to ensure that the recommendations are
enabling decision maker(s) to meet her/his/their objectives.

1.3 HISTORY OF OR
(Prof. Beasley’s lecture notes)
OR is a relatively new discipline. Whereas 70 years ago it would have been possible
to study mathematics, physics or engineering (for example) at university it would not
have been possible to study OR, indeed the term OR did not exist then. It was only
really in the late 1930's that operational research began in a systematic fashion, and
it started in the UK.
Early in 1936 the British Air Ministry established Bawdsey Research Station, on the
east coast, near Felixstowe, Suffolk, as the centre where all pre-war radar
experiments for both the Air Force and the Army would be carried out. Experimental
radar equipment was brought up to a high state of reliability and ranges of over 100
miles on aircraft were obtained.
It was also in 1936 that Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, charged
specifically with the air defense of Britain, was first created. It lacked however any
effective fighter aircraft - no Hurricanes or Spitfires had come into service - and no
radar data was yet fed into its very elementary warning and control system.
It had become clear that radar would create a whole new series of problems in fighter
direction and control so in late 1936 some experiments started at Biggin Hill in Kent
into the effective use of such data. This early work, attempting to integrate radar data
with ground based observer data for fighter interception, was the start of OR.
The first of three major pre-war air-defense exercises was carried out in the summer
of 1937. The experimental radar station at Bawdsey Research Station was brought
into operation and the information derived from it was fed into the general air-defense
warning and control system. From the early warning point of view this exercise was
encouraging, but the tracking information obtained from radar, after filtering and
transmission through the control and display network, was not very satisfactory.
In July 1938 a second major air-defense exercise was carried out. Four additional
radar stations had been installed along the coast and it was hoped that Britain now
had an aircraft location and control system greatly improved both in coverage and
effectiveness. Not so! The exercise revealed, rather, that a new and serious problem
had arisen. This was the need to coordinate and correlate the additional, and often
conflicting, information received from the additional radar stations. With the out-break
of war apparently imminent, it was obvious that something new - drastic if necessary
- had to be attempted. Some new approach was needed.
Accordingly, on the termination of the exercise, the Superintendent of Bawdsey
Research Station, A.P. Rowe, announced that although the exercise had again
demonstrated the technical feasibility of the radar system for detecting aircraft, its
operational achievements still fell far short of requirements. He therefore proposed
that a crash program of research into the operational - as opposed to the technical -
aspects of the system should begin immediately. The term "operational research"
[RESEARCH into (military) OPERATIONS] was coined as a suitable description of
this new branch of applied science. The first team was selected from amongst the
scientists of the radar research group the same day.
In the summer of 1939 Britain held what was to be its last pre-war air defense
exercise. It involved some 33,000 men, 1,300 aircraft, 110 antiaircraft guns, 700
searchlights, and 100 barrage balloons. This exercise showed a great improvement
in the operation of the air defense warning and control system. The contribution
made by the OR teams was so apparent that the Air Officer Commander-in-Chief
RAF Fighter Command (Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding) requested that, on the
outbreak of war, they should be attached to his headquarters at Stanmore.
On May 15th 1940, with German forces advancing rapidly in France, Stanmore
Research Section was asked to analyze a French request for ten additional fighter
squadrons (12 aircraft a squadron) when losses were running at some three
squadrons every two days. They prepared graphs for Winston Churchill (the British
Prime Minister of the time), based upon a study of current daily losses and
replacement rates, indicating how rapidly such a move would deplete fighter strength.
No aircraft were sent and most of those currently in France were recalled.
This is held by some to be the most strategic contribution to the course of the war
made by OR (as the aircraft and pilots saved were consequently available for the
successful air defense of Britain, the Battle of Britain).
In 1941 an Operational Research Section (ORS) was established in Coastal
Command which was to carry out some of the most well-known OR work in World
War II.
Although scientists had (plainly) been involved in the hardware side of warfare
(designing better planes, bombs, tanks, etc) scientific analysis of the operational use
of military resources had never taken place in a systematic fashion before the
Second World War. Military personnel, often by no means stupid, were simply not
trained to undertake such analysis.
These early OR workers came from many different disciplines, one group consisted
of a physicist, two physiologists, two mathematical physicists and a surveyor. What
such people brought to their work were "scientifically trained" minds, used to querying
assumptions, logic, exploring hypotheses, devising experiments, collecting data,
analyzing numbers, etc. Many too were of high intellectual caliber (at least four
wartime OR personnel were later to win Nobel prizes when they returned to their
peacetime disciplines).
By the end of the war OR was well established in the armed services both in the UK
and in the USA.
OR started just before World War II in Britain with the establishment of teams of
scientists to study the strategic and tactical problems involved in military operations.
The objective was to find the most effective utilization of limited military resources by
the use of quantitative techniques.
Following the end of the war OR spread, although it spread in different ways in the
UK and USA.
You should be clear that the growth of OR since it began (and especially in the last
30 years) is, to a large extent, the result of the increasing power and widespread
availability of computers. Most (though not all) OR involves carrying out a large
number of numeric calculations. Without computers this would simply not be
possible.
2. BASIC OR CONCEPTS

"OR is the representation of real-world systems by mathematical models together

with the use of quantitative methods (algorithms) for solving such models, with a view
to optimizing."
We can also define a mathematical model as consisting of:
 Decision variables, which are the unknowns to be determined by the solution to
the model.
 Constraints to represent the physical limitations of the system
 An objective function
 An optimal solution to the model is the identification of a set of variable values
which are feasible (satisfy all the constraints) and which lead to the optimal value
of the objective function.
An optimization model seeks to find values of the decision variables that optimize
(maximize or minimize) an objective function among the set of all values for the
decision variables that satisfy the given constraints.

Two Mines Example

The Two Mines Company own two different mines that produce an ore which, after
being crushed, is graded into three classes: high, medium and low-grade. The
company has contracted to provide a smelting plant with 12 tons of high-grade, 8
tons of medium-grade and 24 tons of low-grade ore per week. The two mines have
different operating characteristics as detailed below.
Mine Cost per day (£'000) Production (tons/day)
High Medium Low
X 180 6 3 4
Y 160 1 1 6
Consider that mines cannot be operated in the weekend. How many days per week
should each mine be operated to fulfill the smelting plant contract?
Guessing
To explore the Two Mines problem further we might simply guess (i.e. use our
judgment) how many days per week to work and see how they turn out.
• work one day a week on X, one day a week on Y
This does not seem like a good guess as it results in only 7 tones a day of high-
grade, insufficient to meet the contract requirement for 12 tones of high-grade a day.
We say that such a solution is infeasible.
• work 4 days a week on X, 3 days a week on Y
This seems like a better guess as it results in sufficient ore to meet the contract. We
say that such a solution is feasible. However it is quite expensive (costly).
We would like a solution which supplies what is necessary under the contract at
minimum cost. Logically such a minimum cost solution to this decision problem must
exist. However even if we keep guessing we can never be sure whether we have
found this minimum cost solution or not. Fortunately our structured approach will
enable us to find the minimum cost solution.

Solution
What we have is a verbal description of the Two Mines problem. What we need to do
is to translate that verbal description into an equivalent mathematical description.
In dealing with problems of this kind we often do best to consider them in the order:
• Variables
• Constraints
• Objective
This process is often called formulating the problem (or more strictly formulating a
mathematical representation of the problem).

Variables
These represent the "decisions that have to be made" or the "unknowns".
We have two decision variables in this problem:
x = number of days per week mine X is operated
y = number of days per week mine Y is operated
Note here that x ≥ 0 and y ≥ 0.
Constraints
It is best to first put each constraint into words and then express it in a mathematical
form.
ore production constraints - balance the amount produced with the
quantity required under the smelting plant contract
Ore
High 6x + 1y ≥ 12
Medium 3x + 1y ≥ 8
Low 4x + 6y ≥ 24
days per week constraint - we cannot work more than a certain
maximum number of days a week e.g. for a 5 day week we have
x≤5
y≤5

Inequality constraints
Note we have an inequality here rather than an equality. This implies that we may
produce more of some grade of ore than we need. In fact we have the general rule:
given a choice between an equality and an inequality choose the inequality
For example - if we choose an equality for the ore production constraints we have the
three equations 6x+y=12, 3x+y=8 and 4x+6y=24 and there are no values of x and y
which satisfy all three equations (the problem is therefore said to be "over-
constrained"). For example the values of x and y which satisfy 6x+y=12 and 3x+y=8
are x=4/3 and y=4, but these values do not satisfy 4x+6y=24.
The reason for this general rule is that choosing an inequality rather than an equality
gives us more flexibility in optimizing (maximizing or minimizing) the objective
(deciding values for the decision variables that optimize the objective).

Implicit constraints
Constraints such as days per week constraint are often called implicit constraints
because they are implicit in the definition of the variables.

Objective
Again in words our objective is (presumably) to minimize cost which is given by
180x + 160y
Hence we have the complete mathematical representation of the problem:
minimize
180x + 160y
subject to
6x + y ≥ 12
3x + y ≥ 8
4x + 6y ≥ 24
x≤5
y≤5
x, y ≥ 0

Some notes
The mathematical problem given above has the form
• all variables continuous (i.e. can take fractional values)
• a single objective (maximize or minimize)
• the objective and constraints are linear i.e. any term is either a constant or a
constant multiplied by an unknown (e.g. 24, 4x, 6y are linear terms but xy or x2
is a non-linear term)
Any formulation which satisfies these three conditions is called a linear program (LP).
We have (implicitly) assumed that it is permissible to work in fractions of days -
problems where this is not permissible and variables must take integer values will be
dealt with under Integer Programming (IP).

Discussion
This problem was a decision problem.
We have taken a real-world situation and constructed an equivalent mathematical
representation - such a representation is often called a mathematical model of the
real-world situation (and the process by which the model is obtained is called
formulating the model).
Just to confuse things the mathematical model of the problem is sometimes called
the formulation of the problem.
Having obtained our mathematical model we (hopefully) have some quantitative
method which will enable us to numerically solve the model (i.e. obtain a numerical
solution) - such a quantitative method is often called an algorithm for solving the
model.
Essentially an algorithm (for a particular model) is a set of instructions which, when
followed in a step-by-step fashion, will produce a numerical solution to that model.
Our model has an objective, that is something which we are trying to optimize.
Having obtained the numerical solution of our model we have to translate that
solution back into the real-world situation.

"OR is the representation of real-world systems by mathematical models

together with the use of quantitative methods (algorithms) for solving such
models, with a view to optimizing."