Def Operations Research

[pippo]

Somebody can tell me the definition of Operations Research?

[pippo]

[Gerard Frediksson]

pippo wrote:

> Somebody can tell me the definition of Operations Research?

No, because there really isn't such a thing as THE definition of OR...

[H. Philip Walton]

Be nice (gentle chide)...we like people to find out about OR!

I'll give it a shot....actually, I'll borrow it from an older
text....I'm sorry if it starts a religious war. ;-)

Ref: , Hillier and Lieberman "Introduction to Operations Research", 4th ed,
Holden-Day, 19xx, p. 6

"In summary, operations research is concerned with optimal
decision making in, and modeling of, deterministic and probabilistic
systems that originate from real life. These applications, which
occur in government, business, engineering, economics, and the
natural and social sciences, are largely characterized by the
need to allocate limited resources. In these situations, considerable
insight can be obtained from scientific analysis such as that porvided by
operations research."

Good luck,
Philip

Gerard Frediksson wrote in message <37EA6BFC...@hotmail.com>...

[James Tebboth]

pippo <stu...@student.unife.it> writes...

>Somebody can tell me the definition of Operations Research?
>

This is the subject of much (ongoing) debate. The British OR Society
has one definition on their web pages at www.orsoc.org.uk.

Regards,

James
_____________
James Tebboth
Dash Associates, Blisworth House, Blisworth, Northants NN7 3BX, UK
Phone: +44 1604 858993 Fax: +44 1604 858147
Email: ja...@dash.co.uk Web: http://www.dash.co.uk/
XPRESS-MP : Software for Modelling and Optimisation
_____________

[Jay Rudin]

pippo wrote:

> Somebody can tell me the definition of Operations Research?

Many years ago, John Campbell,the editor of *Astounding Science
Fiction*, was asked to define what science fiction was. He finally
responded, "Science fiction is what science fiction editors publish."
Similarly, Operations Research is any study that is published in OR
journals. This is probably the true functional definition, but it's
also no help.

Defining OR exactly is probably an NP-complete problem, requiring an
exponentially expanding number of qualifications and exceptions. So
instead of trying the impossible task of giving an exact definition, I
will solve the finite problem of giving you a close approximation.

The simple, straightforward definition that more-or-less fully answers
the question is "OR is the mathematics of decision-making." There are
as many holes in this definition as in any other, but the impression it
gives is still fairly accurate.

Jay Rudin