operations research
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- Key People:
- Charles Babbage George Dantzig
- Related Topics:
- systems engineering industrial engineering queuing theory management
operations research, also called operational research, application of scientific methods to the management and administration of organized military, governmental, commercial, and industrial processes. Operations research attempts to provide those who manage organized systems with an objective and quantitative basis for decision; it is normally carried out by teams of scientists and engineers drawn from a variety of disciplines. Thus, operations research is not a science itself but rather the application of science to the solution of managerial and administrative problems, and it focuses on the performance of organized systems taken as a whole rather than on their parts taken separately. ...(100 of 10169 words)