Operations Research: An Introduction

The first formal activities of Operations Research (OR) were initiated in England during World War II, when a team of British scientists set out to assess the best utilization of war materiel based on scientific principles rather than on ad hoc rules. After the war, the ideas advanced in military operations were adapted to improve efficiency and productivity in the civilian sector. This chapter introduces the basic terminology of OR, including mathematical modeling, feasible solutions, optimization, and iterative algorithmic computations. It stresses that defining the problem correctly is the most important (and most difficult) phase of practicing OR. The chapter also emphasizes that, while mathematical modeling is a cornerstone of OR, unquantifiable factors (such as human behavior) must be accounted for in the final decision. The book presents a variety of applications using solved examples and chapter problems. In particular, the book includes end-of-chapter fully developed case analyses.