Subject Name

Operations Research (OR)

Sub Code: 15ME81

Text Books:

Operations research - Prem Kumar gupta & D S Hira

Operations research – Paneerselvan , PHI
Operations research-- A M Natrajan , Pearson Education 2005
Introduction to Opertions Research – Hillier and Lieberman , Ed., McGraw Hill
Operations research - S D Sharma
Operations research - A P Verma

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

 Evolution and History of Operations Research
• Origin of Operations research – second world war
• Military management of England (UK), USA has limited resources
• Called upon group of scientists to study strategic and tactical problems related to all
forms of defence of the country
• Effective utilizations , decision making , systematic approach
• Results obtained by this research were encouraging , provided good intellectual support
to the initiatives of military commands
• Success of this OR concepts attracted the attentions of Industrial managers .
• Today the impact of OR is in all the field
• George B Dantzing - The first mathematician who developed many technique for
optimization .

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

 Definitions of OR

• It’s a applications of scientific methods , techniques and

tools to provide the optimum solutions to the problems of

the systems

• “ The art of winning the war without actually fighting it”

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

 Applications of Operations research
1. Finance – budgeting and investments
2. Purchasing ,Procurement

3. Production management
a) Distribution
b) Facilities planning

c) Manufacturing

d) Maintenance and projects scheduling

4. Marketing
5. Personnel management
6. Research and development
Prof. Naveen Ankegowda
 Model’s in operations research
Model
Definition: a model is a sense used in OR is defined as
“A representation of an actual situation.
It shows the relations ships(direct and indirect) and inter-relationships
of action and reaction in terms of cause and effect.

Classification of model based on structure:

1. Iconic model : It represents the system as its by scaling it up or down . Simply an image.

2. Analogue model: In this model in which one set of properties is used to represents
another set of properties. Simply a Graph

3. Symbolic (Mathematical) model

It is the one which employs a set of mathematical symbols to represent the decision variables of
the system. All the variables are related together by means of mathematical equations
Prof. Naveen Ankegowda
Characteristics ( Features) of OR
 Inter-disiplinary team approach:- In inventory management , items in
Store , cost , duration availability i.e. involves mathematics ,statistics , economics,

engineering etc.

 Wholistic approach to the system : To solve maintenance problem , we search

for how this will effects the department and other departments production

process.

 Imperfectness of solutions :
we cannot obtain perfect answers but we can only improve

 Use of scientific approach :

Uses techniques of scientific research to obtain best solutions

 To optimize the total output:

OR tries to optimizes the solution byNaveen
Prof. maximizing
Ankegowda the profit and minimizing the cost.
 Main (Steps) phases of OR
 Phase I : Formulating the problem :

 Before proceeding to find the problem must be able to formulate problem in the form of

Model. Like who as to take decisions , what are the objects , controlled variables etc.

 Phase II: Constructing a mathematical model :

 Reformulate the problem which is convenient for the analysis . A mathematical model -

Decision and variables , constraints or restrictions , objective function

 Phase III: Deriving the solutions : Computation of values of variables that maximizes or

minimizes for optimum value.

 Phase IV: Testing the model and its solutions( updating the model) :

 Test for errors and update in the model for further analysis

 Phase V : Controlling the solution : Model may require modification as soon as controlled

variable changes significantly , other wise model goes out of control.

 Phase VI: Implementing the solutions : Finally tested model will be used for

implementation. Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

Limitations of OR

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

Role of Operations Research in decision making
1. Better control

2. Better coordination's

3. Better systems

4. Better research

Six important steps in OR study

Step 1: Observing the problem environment
Step 2: Analyzing and Defining the problem
Step 3: Developing the model
Step 4 Selecting appropriate data input
Step 5: providing a solution and testing reasonableness
Step 6: Implementing the solution

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

Scope of Operations Research
 Agriculture
 In finance
 In industry
 Defence Services
 Education and Training
 In marketing
 In personnel management

 LIC’S etc

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

linear programming problem - Mathematical Formulation
• A furniture dealer deals in only two items–tables and chairs. He has
Rs 50,000 to invest and has storage space of at most 60 pieces. A
table costs Rs 2500 and a chair Rs 500. He estimates that from the
sale of one table, he can make a profit of Rs 250 and that from the
sale of one chair a profit of Rs 75. He wants to know how many
tables and chairs he should buy from the available money so as to
maximize his total profit, assuming that he can sell all the items
which he buys
Such type of problems which seek to maximize (or, minimize)
profit (or, cost) form a general class of problems called
optimization problems

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda

 Mathematical formulation of LPP
•• Let
  x be the number of tables and y be the number of chairs
that the dealer buys.
• The dealer wants to invest in such a way so as to maximize
his profit, say, Z which stated as a function of x and y is
given by
Z = 250x + 75y - called Objective function
Constraints
• 2500x + 500y ≤ 50000 -----------investment constraint
• x + y ≤ 60 ----------------------------storage constraint
x and y must be non-negative, i.e.,
and Non-negative constraints

The above stated optimization problem is an example of linear

programming problem Prof. Naveen Ankegowda
Linear programming problem (LPP)

Thus , Linear Programming Problem is one that is concerned

with finding the optimal value (maximum or minimum value)

of a linear function (called objective function) of several

Decision variables (say x and y), subject to the conditions that

the variables are Non-negative Restrictions and satisfy a set

of linear inequalities (called linear constraints)

Prof. Naveen Ankegowda