JOHN VINCENT A.

NATE ENGR 510 LEC

BSABE 5-1 09-14-2018

HISTORY & APPLICATION OF O.R. (Operations Reasearch)

I. INTRODUCTION
Operations Research (OR) is one of the vital discipline that is typically applied
in almost all real-life problems involving production, business, engineering, statistics
and other allied fields.
Particularly in Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering (ABE), the application
of OR have a huge connection with it. Various ABE problems such as pelletized
biofeed production, agro-industrial manufacturing as well as water consevation
management are some of the on-the-field problems where we can apply our knowlege
in OR.
Furthermore, having a deeper understanding with the History and Application
of OR will give us a comprehensive view of what OR really is, as well as its origin and
its indispensable contributions in the past centuries and beyond.

II. OBJECTIVE
After finishing this term paper, the students were able to:

1. Have a comprehensive view on where and when the OR originates;

2. Discussed the historical background of OR; and
3. Elaborate various specific applications of OR in ABE and other allied fields.

III. METHODOLOGY
1. We went to the CLSU University Library and searched for various history and
appilication of OR that involves in the real-world problems.

2. I’ve also read various related literatures in the internet as an electornic references
focusing in the history and cotemporary applications of OR in the industry.

3. Finally, I’ve listed all the significant informations gathered from different
researches.
IV. RESULTS & DISCUSSION

1. HISTORY OF Operations Research (OR)

Operations Research (OR) is a newly-established discipline way back from

WWII (World War II) in Britain.

Basically, it was focused in the establishment of teams of scientists to study the

strategic and tactical problems involved in military operations. The objective was to
find the most effective utilization of limited military resources by the use of quantitative
techniques.

Following the end of the war OR spread, although it spread in different ways in
the UK and USA. Various dates and developments in connection with OR was
discussed as follows:

TABLE 1: DATES & DEVELOPMENTS IN CONNECTION WITH O.R.

Date OR Historical Developments

Operational research began in a systematic fashion, and it started in the
1930’s UK (United Kingdom)

British Air Ministry established Bawdsey Research Station, on the east

coast, near Felixstowe, Suffolk, as the centre where all pre-war radar
experiments for both the Air Force and the Army would be carried out.

1936 Experimental radar equipment was brought up to a higer state of reliability

and ranges of over 100 miles on aircraft were obtained.

attempting to integrate radar data with ground based observer data for
fighter interception, was the start of OR
The experimental radar station at Bawdsey Research Station was brought
into operation and the information derived from it was fed into the general
air-defense warning and control system.
1937
From the early warning point of view this exercise was encouraging, but
the tracking information obtained from radar, after filtering and
transmission through the control and display network, was not very
satisfactory.
The term "operational research" [RESEARCH into (military)
1938 OPERATIONS] was coined as a suitable description of this new branch of
applied science.
 In the summer of 1939 Britain held what was to be its last pre-war air
defense exercise.
1939
This exercise showed a great improvement in the operation of the air
defense warning and control system
OR was applied in the Battle of Britain.

1940 This is held by some to be the most strategic contribution to the course of
the war made by OR (as the aircraft and pilots saved were consequently
available for the successful air defense of Britain)
In 1941, an Operational Research Section (ORS) was established in
1941 Coastal Command, which was to carry out some of the most well-known
OR work in World War II.
1949 In India, Regional Research Laboratory located at Hyderabad was the first
Operations Research unit
committee on Operations Research formed by the National Research
Council of USA,
1951
The first book on “Methods of Operations Research”, by Morse and
Kimball, was published
1952 Operations Research Society of America came into being.
Operations Research unit was established in Indian Statistical Institute,
1953 Calcutta, with the objective of using Operations Research methods in
National Planning and Survey
1955 Operations Research Society of India was formed, which is one of the first
members of International Federation of Operations Research societies.
The growth of operations research has not limited to the U.S.A. and U.K.,
Present it has reached many countries of the world.
and
Beyond Today Operations Research is a popular subject in management institutes
and schools of mathematics.

In contemporary, OR is already well-established in various countries and

commonly applied in business and engineering problems. Almost every organization
in all countries has staff applying operations research, and the use of operations
research in government has spread from military to wide variety of departments at all
levels.
Furthermore, OR is still developing through different in-depth researches for a
better problem modelling and more feasible solutions.
 2. APPLICATIONS OF Operations Research (OR)

OR have a diverse application in almost all the fields of sciences. Basically,

all the real-life problems involves the fundamentals of quantitative analysis. Hence,
OR was applied with the various fields such as economics, engineering, statistics,
business as well as agriculture and other allied fields.

Various specific examples of OR application was tabulated below:

TABLE 2: SPECIFIC O.R. APPLICATIONS IN DIFFERENT FIELDS

FIELDS SPECIFIC O.R. APPLICATIONS

- Pelletized biofeed formulation
- Optimization of bioethanol extraction
- Maximization of FE (Field Efficiency)
in Agricultural Machineries
- Establishing fertillizer formula with
ENGINEERING (particularly in ABE) high efficiacy for crops
- Programming of MAD (Moisture
Allowable Deposit) in crops
- Rainfall and other Meteorological
paramaters corellation
- Deployment of work force
- Project scheduling, monitoring and
control
STRUCURES/ CONSTRUCTION - Optimization of man-power
- Allocation of resources to projects
- Determination of proper work force
- Warehouse location decision
- Hospital planning
- International logistic system design
FACILITIES PLANNING - Transportation loading and unloading
- Factory location and size decision
- Estimation of number of facilities
required
- Deciding most effective packaging
alternative
MANUFACTURING - Selection of Product mix
- Product introduction timing
- Advertising budget allocation
 - Budget allocation
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT - Planning of Product introduction
- Projects control
- Developing standard costs
- Planning of delinquent account
strategy
ACCOUNTING - Assigning audit teams effectively
- Credit policy analysis
- Establishing costs for byproducts
- Portfolio analysis
- Building financial planning models
FINANCE - Building cash management models
- Investment analysis
- Dividend policy making
- Allocating capital among various
alternatives
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR / - Training program scheduling
HUMAN RESOURCES - Skill balancing
- Designing organizational structure
more effectively
- Personnel planning
- Recruitment of employees
MARKETING - Product introduction timing
- Deciding most effective packaging
alternative
- Advertising budget allocation
- Selection of Product mix
PURCHASING - Optimal reordering
- Materials transfer
- Optimal buying

V. CONCLUSION

The Operations Research (OR) is indeed a newly-established discipline which

is essential in almost all field involving quantitative analysis. With its long history way
back WWII (World War II), OR proves its significance in the military.

Nowadays. its diverse applications was also widen and involves its deep
connection even with the inter-disciplinary fields aiming to provide optimization
 ensuring an ideal output (either maximum or minumum) under various constraints and
limited resources.
Moreover, OR applications was found out to have a deeper relation with the
fields of business and engineering. Various business processes is modelled under OR
considerations as well as different engineering data, which is analyzed using OR
modelling techniques.

VI. REFERENCES

Hillier, F. S. and G. J. Lieberman. 1995. Introduction to Operations Research.

McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.New York.

Rajgopal J. 2010. Principles and Applications of Operations Research. Retrieved on

September 3, 2018 at https://www.pitt.edu/~jrclass/or/or-intro.html.

Mishra P.N. 2004. Quantitative Techniques for Managers. Retrived on August 31, 2018
at www.pondiuni.edu.in/storage/dde/downloads/mbaii_qt.pdf