Description

Operation Research is a relatively new discipline. The contents and the boundaries of the OR are not yet fixed. Therefore, to give a formal definition of the term Operations Research is a difficult task. The OR starts when mathematical and quantitative techniques are used to substantiate the decision being taken. The main activity of a manager is the decision making. In our daily life we make the decision seven without noticing them. The decisions are taken simply by common sense, judgment and expertise without using any mathematical or any other model in simple situations. But the decision we are concerned here with are complex and heavily responsible. Examples are public transportation network planning in a city having its own layout of factories, residential blocks or finding the appropriate product mix when there exists a large number of products with different profit contributions and production requirement etc. Operations Research tools are not from any one discipline. Operations Research takes tools from different discipline such as mathematics, statistics, economics, psychology, engineering etc. and combines these tools to make a new set of knowledge for decision making. Today, O.R. became a professional discipline which deals with the application of scientific methods for making decision, and especially to the allocation of scarce resources. The main purpose of O.R. is to provide a rational basis for decisions making in the absence of complete information, because the systems composed of human, machine, and procedures may do not have complete information. Operations Research can also be treated as science in the sense it describing, understanding and predicting the systems behaviour, especially man-machine system. This text aims to provide students with a clear, well-structured and comprehensive treatment of the theory and applications of operations research. The methodology used is to first introduce the students to the fundamental concepts through numerical illustrations and then explain the underlying theory, wherever required. Inclusion of case studies in the existing chapters makes learning easier and more effective. The book introduces the readers to various models of Operations Research (OR), such as transportation model, assignment model, inventory models, queueing theory and integer programming models. Various techniques to solve OR problems' faced by managers are also discussed. Operations Research provides a broad focus on algorithmic and practical implementation of Operations Research (OR) techniques, using theory, applications, and computations to teach students OR basics. The book can be used conveniently in a survey course that encompasses all the major tools of operations research, or in two separate courses on deterministic and probabilistic decision-making.