As operations research (OR) applications continue to grow and flourish in a number of decision making fields, a reference that is comprehensive, concise, and easy to read is more than a nicety, it is a necessity. This book provides a single volume overview of OR applications in practice, making it the first resource a practitioner would reach for w
This textbook provides students with fundamentals and advanced concepts in optimization and operations research. It gives an overview of the historical perspective of operations research and explains its principal characteristics, tools, and applications. The wide range of topics covered includes convex and concave functions, simplex methods, post optimality analysis of linear programming problems, constrained and unconstrained optimization, game theory, queueing theory, and related topics. The text also elaborates on project management, including the importance of critical path analysis, PERT and CPM techniques. This textbook is ideal for any discipline with one or more courses in optimization and operations research; it may also provide a solid reference for researchers and practitioners in operations research.
Operations Research: A Practical Introduction is just that: a hands-on approach to the field of operations research (OR) and a useful guide for using OR techniques in scientific decision making, design, analysis and management. The text accomplishes two goals. First, it provides readers with an introduction to standard mathematical models and algorithms. Second, it is a thorough examination of practical issues relevant to the development and use of computational methods for problem solving. Highlights: All chapters contain up-to-date topics and summaries A succinct presentation to fit a one-term course Each chapter has references, readings, and list of key terms Includes illustrative and current applications New exercises are added throughout the text Software tools have been updated with the newest and most popular software Many students of various disciplines such as mathematics, economics, industrial engineering and computer science often take one course in operations research. This book is written to provide a succinct and efficient introduction to the subject for these students, while offering a sound and fundamental preparation for more advanced courses in linear and nonlinear optimization, and many stochastic models and analyses. It provides relevant analytical tools for this varied audience and will also serve professionals, corporate managers, and technical consultants.
Operations Research is a bouquet of mathematical techniques which have evolved over the last six decades, to improve the process of business decision making. Operations Research offers tools to optimize and find the best solutions to myriad decisions that managers have to take in their day to day operations or while carrying out strategic planning. Today, with the advent of operations research software, these tools can be applied by managers even without any knowledge of the mathematical techniques that underlie the solution procedures. The book starts with a brief introduction to various tools of operations research, such as linear programming, integer programming, multi-objective programming, queuing theory and network theory together with simple examples in each of the areas. Another introductory chapter on handling the operations research software, along with examples is also provided. The book intends to make the readers aware of the power and potential of operations research in addressing decision making in areas of operations, supply chain, financial and marketing management. The approach of this book is to demonstrate the solution to specific problems in these areas using operations research techniques and software. The reader is encouraged to use the accompanying software models to solve these problems, using detailed do-it-yourself instructions. The intended outcome for readers of this book will be gaining familiarity and an intuitive understanding of the various tools of operations research and their applications to various business situations. It is expected that this will give the reader the ability and confidence to devise models for their own business needs.
This book offers a comprehensive reference guide to operations research theory and applications in health care systems. It provides readers with all the necessary tools for solving health care problems. The respective chapters, written by prominent researchers, explain a wealth of both basic and advanced concepts of operations research for the management of operating rooms, intensive care units, supply chain, emergency medical service, human resources, lean health care, and procurement. To foster a better understanding, the chapters include relevant examples or case studies. Taken together, they form an excellent reference guide for researchers, lecturers and postgraduate students pursuing research on health care management problems. The book presents a dynamic snapshot on the field that is expected to stimulate new directions and stimulate new ideas and developments.
The book provides insights in the decision-making for implementing strategies in various spheres of real-world issues. It integrates optimal policies in various decisionmaking problems and serves as a reference for researchers and industrial practitioners. Furthermore, the book provides sound knowledge of modelling of real-world problems and solution procedure using the various optimisation and statistical techniques for making optimal decisions. The book is meant for teachers, students, researchers and industrialists who are working in the field of materials science, especially operations research and applied statistics.
This book includes case studies that examine the application of operations research to improve or increase efficiency in industry and operational activities. This collection of “living case studies” is all based on the author’s 30-year career of consulting and advisory work. These true-to life industrial applications illustrate the research and development of solutions, as well as potential implementation and integration problems that may occur when adopting these methods into a business. Among the topics covered in the chapters include optimization in circuit board manufacturing, Decision Support System (DSS) for plant loading and dispatch planning, as well as development of important test procedures for tyre and pharma industry with shelf life constraints. In particular, the study on deckle optimization should be of great help to managers in paper industry and consultants for development of deckle optimization software. The application of operations research throughout the industry makes it an ideal guide for industrial executives, professionals and practitioners responsible for quality and productivity improvement.
This book captures current trends and developments in the field of systems thinking and soft operations research which can be applied to solve today's problems of dynamic complexity and interdependency. Such ‘wicked problems’ and messes are seemingly intractable problems characterized as value-laden, ambiguous, and unstable, that resist being tamed by classical problem solving. Actions and interventions associated with this complex problem space can have highly unpredictable and unintended consequences. Examples of such complex problems include health care reform, global climate change, transnational serious and organized crime, terrorism, homeland security, human security, disaster management, and humanitarian aid. Moving towards the development of solutions to these complex problem spaces depends on the lens we use to examine them and how we frame the problem. It will be shown that systems thinking and soft operations research has had great success in contributing to the management of complexity.
