OPERATIONS RESEARCH

Vikrant Sharma
Mechanical Engineering Department
CET. MUST
Introduction

• Operation research is a field of study where we optimize performance under

given constraints.
• As its name implies , operation research involves “research on operations”.
Thus operation research is applied to problems that concern how to conduct
and coordinate the operations (i.e. activities) within an organization.
• The research part of the name means that operation research uses an
approach that resembles the way research is conducted in established
scientific field.
• OR provides a set of algorithms that act as a tool for effective problem
solving and decision making.
• The first formal activities of OR were initiated in England during World War
II, when a team of British scientists set out to make scientifically based
decision regarding the best utilization of war material.

• OR is also called Management Science

 Linear Programming

• LP is most important and popular technique of OR.

• Linear means that all the mathematical function in this model are required to
be linear function. The word programming does not refer here to computer
programming; rather, it is essentially a synonym for planning.
• Thus linear programming involves the planning of activities to obtain an
optimal result.
• LP first conceived by George B Dantzig in 1947.
• LP is a mathematical modeling technique used to optimize performance
(profit or cost) under a set of resource constraints as specified by an
organization.
• A LP model consists of decision variables, an objective function and
model constraints.