Wiley Encyclopedia of Operations Research and Management Science

摘要

The fascinating thing about operations research is that, for all its complexity, it sets out to explain lots of everyday processes. The challenge usually comes from the quantitative ways in which this explanation is carried out. For anyone working in a practical and professional way, or an academic and research way, the mix of "operations research" and "management science" (called ORMS) makes sense because they overlap and complement each other so well, each feeding into the other. If we consider, for instance, situations in which managers wonder how best to ensure and analyse information flows between partners in a supply chain, or the alternatives optimally preferable in a transportation network in an urban area, or how best to manage the inventory of perishable food products in a company, or create a model of ways in which queues form, or factor in probability into understanding risk and priority in health-care, or draw out the options for and choices of participants in competition with each other, or represent voting decisions in politics: in all and any of these situations, one is likely to use, or want to use, or get expert help in order to use, operations research and techniques based on the "harder" or more quantitative side of management.