Introduction:USES OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH, Marketing, Personnel

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Operations Research (MTH601)

In its recent years of organized development, OR has entered successfully many

different areas of research for military government and industry in many countries of the world.

The basic problem in most of the developing countries in Asia and Africa is to remove poverty

and improve the standard of living of a common man as quickly as possible. So there is a great

scope for economists, statisticians, administrators, politicians and the technicians working in a

team to solve this problem by an OR approach. The possible application sectors, in Pakistan, are

as under:-

Macro Economic Planning:

OR can be employed for Macro-Economic Planning of the country:

Input / Output Analysis: by using LP models. This input/output analysis

can be of any duration [i.e. of short term (up to say 10 years)-Five Year

Plan; and of long term (10-30 years)].

Investment Planning: OR can be employed in the Investment Planning of

the country where investment plans for the next five or ten years are

prepared. Mixed Integer Programming and Linear Programming

techniques can be used.

Choice of Projects: OR can help the people in the planning in choosing the

optimal project. This sort of choice would need Integer Programming and

Quadratic Assignment techniques.

OR can also be used in Simulation Modeling of the Economy of the

country.

Operations Research (MTH601)

Sectoral Planning:

OR can also be employed in a particular sector of the Economy, e.g. in

agriculture, in finance, in industry, in marketing, in production, in management

etc.

Scheduling all operations within a sector can be done by using OR e.g.

production scheduling + Distribution planning + marketing + Personnel

management + maintenance + ...............

Schedule of some operations within a sector can be done by employing

OR e.g. Inventory planning in agriculture or distribution of fertilizer etc.

Micro Economic Planning:

This sort of activity involve for example:

Planning the operations of a Company.

Improving the layout of a workshop in a company.

Finding size of a hospital in an area etc.

There is a great potential for utilizing OR in this area of planning in our country.

POTENTIAL AREAS OF APPLICATIONS

As mentioned earlier OR can be applied in every field of life. Here are few of the many

fields where OR has potential application. This list is by no means comprehensive or exhaustive

but definitely will provide an idea of the power of OR as a separate discipline.

Operations Research (MTH601)

Operations Research in the Public Sector

Federal, Provincial and Local Government

Development of Country Structure Plans

Manpower Planning and Career Development in Govt. Departments

Organization of Long-Term planning groups at the National Level

Corporate Planning in Local Government

Allocation of Government Houses

Estimation of Future Requirement of School/College Building

Placing of Fire Brigade in a City

Measuring the Effectiveness of Police

Timetabling in Schools and Colleges for Efficient use of Space

Health

Management policies for 120-bed nursing units

Optimum size of general hospitals

Appointment systems for hospital outpatients

Stock control for regional and area health units

National and area planning of health services

Manpower planning for nurses, radiographers, etc.

Commissioning of a new general hospital

Simulation of pathology laboratories

Organizing an ambulance service

Care provided by community nurses

Operations Research (MTH601)

Defense

Arms control and disarmament studies

Communications network development

Logistic support in operations

Field experimentation

War games and other models of battle

Equipment procurement

Reinforcement and redeployment problems

Operations Research in Industry & Commerce

Finance and Investment

Developing the five-year plan for a food manufacturer

Development of the pipeline

Computer based financial planning

Portfolio selection

Structure for the assets of a bank

Evaluating investment in a new plant

Corporate planning in the chemical industry

Financing expansion of a small firm

Production

Production scheduling in a steel works

Meeting peak demands for electricity

Minimization of costs of power station maintenance

Scheduling newsprint deliveries

Operations Research (MTH601)

Stock levels of steel plate

Meeting seasonal demands for products

Blending scrap metals

Stock policy for a paint manufacturer

Allowing for yarn breaks in spinning

Meeting customer requirements for carpets

Planning a quarry's output

Optimum layout for belt coal transport in a colliery

Marketing

Launching a new product

Advertising effectiveness and cost

Planning sales territories

Measurement of consumer loyalty

Buyer-seller behavior

Advertising research and media scheduling

Most profitable retail brand mix

Developing customer service policies

Pricing policies for confectionery

Personnel

Personnel shift planning

Manpower planning

Manpower for an assembly line

Effects of flexible working hours

Operations Research (MTH601)

Distribution

Distribution of Products.

Returnable bottles: how many?

Refinery crude tank capacity

Depot location of pharmaceutical products

Trucking policy for dairy products

Distribution of newspapers to newsagents

OR in Transport

Rail

Rail freight management

Required fleet size of locomotives and rolling stock

Forecasting passenger traffic

Planning reconstruction of main-line termini

Introduction of freightliners

Road

Designing urban road networks

Forecasts of car ownership

Implementation of bus lanes

Re-routing bus services

Purchasing and maintenance of buses

Introduction of flat-fare buses

Bus services in rural areas

Preparation of crew rosters

Operations Research (MTH601)

Air

Planning the introduction of Boeing 737/Airbus 300

Allocation of aircraft and crew to routes

Location of Islamabad Airport

Karachi-Lahore - Islamabad - Peshawer: aircraft requirements

Sea

Potential traffic for new container services

Shipbuilding requirement in the 1990's

Optimum ship size for given routes

Construction and management of a container terminal

EXAMPLE

Before proceeding further let us take an example, which will help to understand the scope

of application in various activities. Given below are some of the major activities which

OPERATIONS:

Oil production from fields

Transportation of Crude

from fields to refineries

from fields to export ports (Jetties)

from import ports (Jetties) to refineries

Operations Research (MTH601)

Storage of Crude

on fields

at Ports

at refineries

Refinery Scheduling

Operation of CDU's

Operation of Blending Units

Storage of Distilled Blended Products

at refineries

at Jetties

at distribution points

Transportation of Products

from Jetties to refineries

from one refinery to another for another processing

from refinery to bulk distribution pts.

from bulk distribution points to final consumers.

At all the stages from oil production from fields to its transportation to the final consumer

OR has been employed in the developed countries of the world. Applying on macro level is not

Operations Research (MTH601)

an easy job. This would require true and factual data computing power and trained

professionals, and perhaps at this stage we may face some problem due to limited resources in

term of manpower, money and machines, but it does not mean that we should not make a

beginning.

REQUIREMENTS FOR APPLYING SUCCESSFUL OR

In order to apply OR successfully in achieving certain objectives the following are some

of the prerequisites:

Sufficient number of qualified OR personnel should be available who

should know the art of selling OR. These professional should be ready to

work in close cooperation with staff at various levels of the organization

because they have to dig out the problem from the grass roots.

Normally, there is a tendency of management to give false information, in

order to create a better image, and sometime there may be a lack of

adequate communication between OR practitioner and management. To

meet these circumstances there should be a healthy interaction with the

statistical machinery so as to enhance the quality and availability of data.

Satisfactory power of computer machinery along with associated support

should be available so as to analyze the data and forecast correctly. For

this management should be aware of modern techniques and tools of

management.

Operations Research (MTH601)

Last but not the least management should be ready to accept the change

and be enthusiastic to know the correct alternatives.

CONCLUSION

In the proceeding paras we traced briefly the history of OR; defined OR, and its process;

elaborated various techniques of OR; identified various areas of application and requirements for

successfully applying OR. Before concluding it will be most appropriate to quote Stafford Beer,

the famous OR Scientists.

"We call that work operational (with a large O) because it is based in the

world of genuine activity, the places where things actually happen. All good

sciences, as distinguished from all mysticism is found in empiricism. It involves

actual observation, actual measurement and actual experiment."

We call our work Research (with a capital R) because we deal with

problems to which no one knows the answer.

"Doing that thing is called RESEARCH!"

Finally I would say,

"We need OR teams of outstanding abilities, working on problems of decision &

control at the National Level. Because these problems are usually discussed in

economic terms, they are currently assumed to be purely economic problems."

Operations Research (MTH601)

BUT THEY ARE NOT

"Interdisciplinary Scientific teams are needed to evaluate issues subject to

conflicting criteria."

Operations Research (MTH601)

REFERENCES

Bellman, Richard E. Dynamic Programming. Princeton University. Press

Gale, David, The Theory of Linear Economic Models. McGraw-Hill

Hadley, G., Linear Programming. Addison Wesley

Ackoff, R. L., and P. Rivett, A Manager's Guide to Operations Research, Wiley

Dantzig, George B., Linear Programming and Extensions, Princeton University Press

Hadley, G., Nonlinear and Dynamic Programming, Addison Wesley

Ackoff, Russell L., and Maurice W. Sasieni, Fundamentals of Operations Research, Wiley

Beale, E. M. L., Ed. Applications of Mathematical Programming Techniques. English

University. Press

Rivett, P., Principles of Model Building, Wiley

Wagner, Harvey M. Principles of Operations Research, Prentice-Hall

Taha, Hamdy A., Operations Research: An Introduction, Macmillan

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