SKEDSOFT

Operations Research

Introduction:

Basically it is a branch of mathematics which provides a solid base to management to take timely and effective decision for any organization.

Main objective:

The objective of Operations Research is to provide a scientific basis to the decision maker for solving the problems involving the interaction of various components of an organization by employing a team of scientists from various disciplines, all working together for finding a solution which is in the best interest of the organization as a whole. The best solution thus obtained is known as optimal decision”.

  •        Today’s situation in which a manager has to work is very complicated due to complexity in business organizations. Today’s business units have number of departments and each department work for fulfilling the objectives of the organization.
  •         While doing so the individual objective of one of the department may be conflicting with the objective of the other department, though both working for achieving the common goal in the interest of the organization.
  • In such situations, it will become a very complicated issue for the general manager to get harmony among the departments and to allocate the available resources of all sorts to the departments to achieve the goal of the organization.

Decisions may also be classified depending on the situations such as degree of certainty. For example,

  1.          Decision making under certainty
  2.          Decision making under Uncertainty and
  3.          Decision making under risk.

The first two are two extremes and the third one is falls between these two with certain probability distribution.