Historical Background of Operational Research

Name :Nainesh patel

Submitted to Asst.prof Devang Padiya

Definitions of OR

Nature and Scope of Study

Content Phases of OR

Classification of OR Model

Methodology of OR

Application areas of OR
 • Operations
The activities carried out in an organization.
What is • Research
Operations The process of observation and testing characterized
by the scientific method.
Research? Situation, problem statement, model construction,
validation, experimentation, candidate solutions.
• Operational Research is a systematic and analytical approach to
decision making and problem solving.
• O.R. is an Branch of applied mathematics that uses techniques and
statistics to arrive at Optimal solutions to solve complex problems.
• It is typically concerned with determining the maximum profit, sale,
output, crops yield and efficiency And minimum losses, risks, cost,
and time of some objective function.
• Operations Research is the application of analytical methods designed
to help the decision makers choose between various courses of action
available to accomplish specified objectives
History of OR
• Based on the history of Operations
Research, it is believed that Charles
Babbage (1791-1871) is the father of
Operational Research due to the fact
that his research into the cost of
transportation and sorting of mail
resulted in England’s universal Penny
Post in 1840.
• (Fact: Penny post- every post weighing
less than 1 pound was charged 1
Penny)
 Father of the Computer
• In 1837, Charles Babbage proposed the first general mechanical
computer, the Analytical Engine.
• The Analytical Engine contained an ALU (Arithmetic Logic Unit), basic
flow control, punch cards (inspired by the Jacquard Loom), and
integrated memory.
• It is the first general-purpose computer concept. Unfortunately,
because of funding issues, this computer was also never built while
Charles Babbage was alive.
• In 1910, Henry Babbage, Charles Babbage's youngest son, was able
to complete a portion of this machine and was able to perform basic
calculations.
• The roots of OR can be traced back many decades, when early
attempts were made to use a scientific approach in the management
of organizations.
• However, the beginning of the activity called operations research has
generally been attributed to the military services early in World War
II.
• The name operations research
evolved in the year 1940.
• During World War II, a team of
scientists (Blackett’s Circus) in UK
applied scientific techniques to
research military operations to
win the war and the techniques
thus developed was named as
OR.
• As a formal discipline, operations
research originated from the
efforts of army advisors at the
time of World War II.
• Because of the war effort, there was an urgent need to allocate scarce
resources to the various military operations and to the activities
within each operation in an effective manner.
• Therefore, the British and then the U.S. military management called
upon a large number of scientists to apply a scientific approach to
dealing with this and other strategic and tactical problems. In effect,
they were asked to do research on (military) operations. These teams
of scientists were the first OR teams.
• By developing effective methods of using the new tool of radar, these
teams were instrumental in winning the Air Battle of Britain.
• Patrick Blackett worked for several different organizations during the
war. Early in the war while working for the Royal Aircraft
Establishment (RAE) he set up a team known as the "Circus" which
helped to reduce the number of anti-aircraft artillery rounds needed
to shoot down an enemy aircraft from an average of over 20,000 at
the start of the Battle of Britain to 4,000 in 1941.
• Through their research on how to better manage convoy and
antisubmarine operations, they also played a major role in winning the
Battle of the North Atlantic.
• Similar efforts assisted the Island Campaign in the Pacific. When the war
ended, the success of OR in the war effort spurred interest in applying OR
outside the military as well.
• As the industrial boom following the war was running its course, the
problems caused by the increasing complexity and specialization in
organizations were again coming to the forefront.
• It was becoming apparent to a growing number of people, including
business consultants who had served on or with the OR teams during the
war, that these were basically the same problems that had been faced by
the military but in a different context. By the early 1950s, these individuals
had introduced the use of OR to a variety of organizations in business,
industry, and government. The rapid spread of OR soon followed.
Factors that played a key role Post World War II
• One was the substantial progress that was made early in improving
the techniques of OR. After the war, many of the scientists who had
participated on OR teams or who had heard about this work were
motivated to pursue research relevant to the field; important
advancements in the state of the art resulted.
• A prime example is the simplex method for solving linear
programming problems, developed by George Dantzig in 1947. Many
of the standard tools of OR, such as linear programming, dynamic
programming, queueing theory, and inventory theory, were relatively
well developed before the end of the 1950s.
• A second factor that gave great impetus to the growth of the field was the
onslaught of the computer revolution.
• A large amount of computation is usually required to deal most effectively
with the complex problems typically considered by OR. Doing this by hand
would often be out of the question.
• Therefore, the development of electronic digital computers, with their
ability to perform arithmetic calculations thousands or even millions of
times faster than a human being can, was a tremendous boon to OR.
• A further boost came in the 1980s with the development of increasingly
powerful personal computers accompanied by good software packages for
doing OR. This brought the use of OR within the easy reach of much larger
numbers of people.
• Today, literally millions of individuals have ready access to OR software.
Consequently, a whole range of computers from mainframes to laptops
now are being routinely used to solve OR problems.
 • India was among the few nations which began utilizing
O.R. In 1949, the first Operational Research unit was
established at Hyderabad which was named Regional
Research Laboratory .
• At the same time an additional unit was launched in Defense
Science Laboratory to fix the Stores, Purchase and Planning
Problems.
Operations • In 1953 at Calcutta, an O.R. unit was established in Indian
Statistical Institute. The objective was to use O.R. techniques
Research in National Planning and Survey.
• In 1957, Operations Research Society of India was created,
in India which is among the first members of International
Federation of Operations Research societies.
• Today, the utilization of O.R. techniques have spread out
from army to a wide range of departments at all levels.
• At present the Society has 12 Operating
• Chapters located in Agra, Ahmedabad, Ajmer,
• Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Durgapur,
• Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Madurai, Mumbai and Tirupati.
Nature and SCOPE OF OR
• Scope – what all the subject can do for you
• English- reading, writing, communication
• Maths-identify no, payments etc
Scope of OR??
• Industrial management, Decision Science- BBA
- (production, scheduling, product mix, Inventory etc.)
Defence Operations- (Operations, intelligence, administration, training and the
like)- Core from where it all started-Intelligence, training, allocation
- Used by developed nations in planning and infrastructure development and
developing nations to fight issues like hunger, poverty to improve infrastructure
- hospitals – scheduling, reducing waiting time
SCOPE for management- Across the
organisation
• Allocation and distribution ( Assignment, transportation)- Raw material,
product, demand forecasting, sequencing, Sales man for cost effective
route)
• Production and Facility planning(scheduling, sequencing)
• Procurement(low cost acquisition of material, bidding)
• Marketing(advertising budgets and effectiveness. Demand forecasts,
assignment of salesman)
• Finance(Capital requirement, cash flow , optimum replacement policies-
equipment, stock)
• Personnel( selection, training, retirement, replacement)
• Research and development(Checking reliability, feasibility etc)
Attributes of OR
• Interdisciplinary approach- the problem must be explored by an interdisciplinary team,
to take advantage of modelling and solving problems from different perspectives.
A group of individuals bringing various skills and viewpoints to a problem.
• Integrated Approach/ Systems Approach- takes into account all elements of a problem
that belong to organization, environment, and interaction between them.
• Include broad implications of decisions for the organization at each stage in analysis.
Both quantitative and qualitative factors are considered
• Scientific Approach/ Optimal Solution- A solution to the model that optimizes
(maximizes or minimizes) some measure of merit over all feasible solutions.
• Operations Research Techniques
• A collection of general mathematical models, analytical procedures, and algorithms
• Which follows a procedure- proven – experimental approach-certain path-
• Problem- alternatives- data analysis- best alternative
Application Areas
• Strategic planning
• Supply chain management
• Pricing and revenue management
• Logistics and site location
• Optimization
• Marketing research

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