Operation Research & Managerial Decision Making

Operation Research & Managerial Decision Making

Operations Research (OR) is one of the popular managerial decision science tools used by profit and nonprofit organizations. The growth of global markets and the resulting increase in competition have highlighted the need for Operation Research. In order to be competitive, businesses must meet the challenges present in a global market by offering products and services that offer good value to their customers. Good value is a combination of low cost, high quality, rapid availability and real time information on these.

 The government should encourage this initiative by adopting optimized responses. Consequently, optimized policy responses and its implementation would bring about positive changes in the socio political and economic environment.

 Such a wide usage of operational research models by the government, industry and academicians would not only contribute to the discipline but also would contribute to the enhanced quality of life in India.

During the 1950‟s there was substantial progress in the application of Operation Research techniques for civilian activities along with a great interest in the professional development and education in Operation Research. Many colleges and universities introduced Operation Research in their curricula. They were generally schools of engineering, public administration, business management, applied mathematics, economics, computer science etc.

Operation Research has come to be used in a very large number of areas such as problems of traffic, question of deciding a suitable fare structure for public transport, or industrial process like ore-handling. Its use has now extended to academic spheres, such as the problems of communication of information, socio-economic fields and national planning.

Integrity of data depends on many factors. Information system that requires manual input of data, unstable network systems, unstable programs and defective hardware are some of the factors. The most important factor that determines high data integrity is human error when inputting data. Human errors can be minimized through education combined with hands-on training such as on-the-job training. Unfortunately, many organizations tend to focus heavily on physical system implementation and give little or no attention on education and training. Sustainment is as important implementation.

Another name for managers is decision makers. To survive and lead the today’s highly competitive and demand driven market, pressure is on management to make economical decisions. One of the essential managerial skills is ability to allocate and utilize resources appropriately in the efforts of achieving the optimal performance efficiently.

Decision making is a key managerial responsibility of today managers under intense competition than ever before. Hence the need for effective decision making in business has been more apparent. a sound and useful decision requires a rigorous and scientific approach to the problem. Operation Research which has been defined as "the use of scientific method to provide criteria for decisions regarding man machine system involving repetitive operations", provides manages with quantitative basic for decision making. By employing a systematic study of a problem involving gathering data building a mathematical model experimenting with the model and predicting future operations; operations research provides those in control of the system with optimum solutions to the problems that confront the executive when he tries to achieve a thorough going rationality in dealing with his problems. In short mathematical and logical means of Operation Research provides the executive with quantitative basic for decision making and enhance ability to made long-range plans and to solve everyday problems of running a business industry with greater efficiency, competence and confidence.