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| Opportunities in Research Management. |
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| Operations research management offers a wide array of opportunities for the students |
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The discipline of Operations Research (OR) provides a scientific approach to decision-making. The objective of many decision-making problems is to determine the minimum or maximum out of a set of alternatives; OR is essentially a mathematical science concerned with optimal decision-making and the modeling of deterministic and probabilistic systems. Its focus and field of application are interdisciplinary, embracing a range of quantity techniques with components in engineering, economics, computer science, and systems theory. The mathematical techniques used in OR are drawn from areas or mathematics such as optimisation, optimal control, probability and statistics. The area of optimisation, which is concerned with the mathematical problem of minimizing or maximising a function or functions subject to constraints, plays a particularly important role. Major sub-fields of optimization, which are critical in solving OR problems, are mathematical programming, dynamic programming and combinatorial optimization.
The or Solution
Many businesses and complex organizations face, difficult decisions on a daily basis. Each decision involves making a trade-off between competing activities, often vying for limited resources. For example, a manufacturing company must decide the quantities of each product it should be making at each point in time, how many products of each type it should keep in inventory, by what modes of transport and what routes it should distribute its product, which combination of now product development projects it should fund in the next year, which workers should be on which shifts, how much overtime will be required of each worker, when it should replace or repair its equipment, and so on. The decisions are interdependent on so many factors that a mathematical computation model offers an objective and transparent tools for decision-making. The effect of different decisions may be worked out by using a combination of different variables. The risk versus advantage of each decision may be weighed through mathematical computations so that the best optimal decision is taken.
Operations research and management sciences are terms that are used interchangeably to describe the discipline of applying advanced analytical techniques to help make better decisions and to more efficient problem solving. New analytical methods have been developed and numerous applications have emerged, leading to the use of operations research in many industries and occupations. The prevalence of operations research in the nations economy reflects the growing complexity of managing large organisations that require the effective use of money, materials, equipment, and people. Operations research analysts help determine better ways to coordinate these elements by applying analytical methods from mathematics, science, and engineering. They solve problems in different ways and propose alternative solutions to management, which then chooses the course of action that best meets the organisations goals. In general, operations research analysts may be concerned with diverse issues such as top-level strategy, planning, forecasting, resource allocation, performance measurement, scheduling, the design of production facilities and systems, supply chain management, pricing, transportation and distribution, and the analysis of large databases.
Areas under OR
OR is now emerging as a popular broad spectrum post graduate degree. Its most appropriate for students who have a passion for mathematical analysis and statistics. The offshoots or majors under operation research would be industrial engineering management, financial engineering or financial analysis, strategic planning and decision-making. OR is unique. It employs highly developed methods practiced by specially trained professionals. Its powerful, using advanced tools and technologies to provide analytical power that no ordinary software or spreadsheet can deliver out of the box. An OR professional offers you the ability to define your specific challenge in ways that make the most of your data and uncover your most beneficial options. To achieve these results, OR professionals draw upon the latest analytical technologies, including :
Simulation : Giving you the ability to try out approaches and test ideas for improvement.
Optimisation : Narrowing your choices to the very best when there are in numerable feasible options and comparing them is difficult.
Probability and Statistics : Helping you measure risk, mine data to find valuable connections and insights, test conclusions, and make reliable forecasts.
Graduates of OR management enjoy the widest variety of career opportunities and work styles. They work for companies that specialise in manufacturing, logistics, supply chain management, consulting, financial services, information technologies, or transportation as well as universities, industrial or governmental research groups. OR professionals may be theoreticians or practitioners and work in academia, industry, and public service. Graduates may teach, do research, consult, advise on risk control, analyze data, explode myths, implement models, and make decisions. Some graduates who work in industry remain in technical analyst positions and some move into managerial roles.
Concept : The concepts and methods of OR are pervasive. Students and graduates advise the public and private sectors on energy policy; design and operation of urban emergency systems; defense; health care; water resource planning; the criminal justice system; transportation issues. They also address a wide variety of design and operational issues in communication and data networks; computer operations; marketing; finance; inventory planning; manufacturing; and many areas designed to improve business productivity and efficiency The subject impacts biology and genomics, the Internet, the airline system, international banking and finance. It is a subject of infinite breadth and applicability.
Work arena
The environment of work varies according to the structure and management philosophy of the employer or client. Some firms centralize OR in one department; others use OR in each division, OR analysts also may work closely with senior managers to identify and solve a variety of problems. Some organizations contract OR services with a consulting firm. Economists, systems analysts, mathematicians, industrial engineers, and others may apply OR techniques to address problems in their respective fields. Regardless of the type or structure of the client organisation, OR in its classical role entails a similar set of procedures in carrying out analysis to support managements quest to improve performance. Managers begin the process by describing the symptoms of a problem to the analyst, who then formally defines the problem. For example, an OR analyst for a construction company may be asked to determine the best inventory levels needed for its raw materials. Too many iron girders would be wasteful and expensive, while too few could result in halt in construction. Each man day lost due to lack of appropriate raw materials would mean escalation of costs as the labor wage bill would still have to paid.
OR analysts study such problems, breaking them into their components. Analysts then gather information about each of the components from a variety of sources. To determine the most efficient amount of inventory to be kept on hand, for example, OR analysts might talk with construction engineers about production levels, discuss purchasing arrangements with buyers, and examine storage-cost data provided by the accounting department.
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