TY - JOUR
T1 - Or practice
T2 - Survey results and reflections of practising informs members
AU - Abdel-Malek, L.
AU - Wolf, C.
AU - Johnson, F.
AU - Spencer, T.
N1 - Funding Information:
In the early 1980s the state of OR was analysed by success and failure of OR applications. The Committee On the Next Decade in Operations Research (CONDOR),5 under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, has published a report highlighting OR research opportu- nities for the 1990s that could produce significant results. The article first reviewed some OR accomplishments during the 1970s and the 1980s. Examples of the successes were in major cost reduction and increased service effectiveness at companies such as Agrico, Ciba-Geigy, W. R. Grace, International Paper, and R. G. Sloans. These improvements stemmed from appropriately applying network flow models to optimise these firms' various operations. Other examples of success were due to applying queuing models and mathematical programming to reduce emergency services' response times in several large cities around the world. The CONDOR article provided more cases of the success of OR and concluded by highlighting areas of research the committee viewed as having potential for application. Of these we mention, optimisation, stochastic processes, the interface of operational research with artificial intelligence, and manufacturing logistics.
PY - 1999/10
Y1 - 1999/10
N2 - In the 1970s, several articles, mostly expressing views of Operational Research pioneers and academicians appeared discussing the state of OR practice. Motivated by the current developments and advances in computing and information technologies, this paper extends these works by directly surveying the practising population of INFORMS to obtain opinions about the state of OR practice today, and the implications for the future. Additionally, in order to better assess the state of OR practice, interviews were held with a sample of successful practitioners to obtain furtherinput on the results of the survey. Despite some problems, most of the practising community seems to agree that the practice of operational research is still growing. In obtained responses, the community emphasised the importance of communication skills and the need for more integration between information technology and operational research methodsin order for OR to achieve its real potential.
AB - In the 1970s, several articles, mostly expressing views of Operational Research pioneers and academicians appeared discussing the state of OR practice. Motivated by the current developments and advances in computing and information technologies, this paper extends these works by directly surveying the practising population of INFORMS to obtain opinions about the state of OR practice today, and the implications for the future. Additionally, in order to better assess the state of OR practice, interviews were held with a sample of successful practitioners to obtain furtherinput on the results of the survey. Despite some problems, most of the practising community seems to agree that the practice of operational research is still growing. In obtained responses, the community emphasised the importance of communication skills and the need for more integration between information technology and operational research methodsin order for OR to achieve its real potential.
KW - Contemporary OR practice
KW - Operational research
KW - Survey
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U2 - 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600805
DO - 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600805
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0033442029
SN - 0160-5682
VL - 50
SP - 994
EP - 1003
JO - Journal of the Operational Research Society
JF - Journal of the Operational Research Society
IS - 10
ER -