Students with diverse backgrounds will face a multitude of decisions in a variety of engineering, scientific, industrial, and financial settings. They will need to know how to identify problems that the methods of operations research (OR) can solve, how to structure the problems into standard mathematical models, and finally how to apply or develop computational tools to solve the problems. Perfect for any one-semester course in OR, Operations Research: A Practical Introduction answers all of these needs. In addition to providing a practical introduction and guide to using OR techniques, it includes a timely examination of innovative methods and practical issues related to the development and use of computer implementations. It provides a sound introduction to the mathematical models relevant to OR and illustrates the effective use of OR techniques with examples drawn from industrial, computing, engineering, and business applications Many students will take only one course in the techniques of Operations Research. Operations Research: A Practical Introduction offers them the greatest benefit from that course through a broad survey of the techniques and tools available for quantitative decision making. It will also encourage other students to pursue more advanced studies and provides you a concise, well-structured, vehicle for delivering the best possible overview of the discipline.
This e-book asks: Is Supply Chain Management an emerging academic discipline? Supply Chain Management (SCM) has continued to grow in prominence within the field of Operations Management and also within the broader discipline of management. Practitioners have begun to adopt and adapt new techniques to supply management that improve firm performance. Organizations in both the public and private sectors are becoming increasingly aware of the pivotal role that SCM can play in their business success. This is a challenging special issue aimed at stimulating debate rather than providing a definiti.
Quantitative Methods in Transportation provides the most useful, simple, and advanced quantitative techniques for solving real-life transportation engineering problems. It aims to help transportation engineers and analysts to predict travel and freight demand, plan new transportation networks, and develop various traffic control strategies that are safer, more cost effective, and greener. Transportation networks can be exceptionally large, and this makes many transportation problems combinatorial, and the challenges are compounded by the stochastic and independent nature of trip-planners decision making. Methods outlined in this book range from linear programming, multi-attribute decision making, data envelopment analysis, probability theory, and simulation to computer techniques such as genetic algorithms, simulated annealing, tabu search, ant colony optimization, and bee colony optimization. The book is supported with problems and has a solutions manual to aid course instructors.
This edited volume is an introduction to diverse methods and applications in operations research focused on local populations and community-based organizations that have the potential to improve the lives of individuals and communities in tangible ways. The book's themes include: space, place and community; disadvantaged, underrepresented or underserved populations; international and transnational applications; multimethod, cross-disciplinary and comparative approaches and appropriate technology; and analytics. The book is comprised of eleven original submissions, a re-print of a 2007 article by Johnson and Smilowitz that introduces CBOR, and an introductory chapter that provides policy motivation, antecedents to CBOR in OR/MS, a theory of CBOR and a comprehensive review of the chapters. It is hoped that this book will provide a resource to academics and practitioners who seek to develop methods and applications that bridge the divide between traditional OR/MS rooted in mathematical models and newer streams in 'soft OR' that emphasize problem structuring methods, critical approaches to OR/MS and community engagement and capacity-building.
"This is the book I have been waiting for. Community Operational Research has shown that analysis can be used not only for, but also with, community groups, helping them to gain more control of their situations. What Midgley and Ochoa-Arias' volume does is provide not only rich examples of grass-roots practice, but also thought-provoking theoretical explorations. The editors have a point of view, but they allow space for debate with those who interpret Community OR differently." Jonathan Rosenhead (Emeritus Professor of Operational Research, London School of Economics and Political Science; Ex-President of the ORS)
This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.
