Characteristics Of Operation 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.

Characteristics of operation research: there are following characteristics of operation research

Operations Research is an interdisciplinary team approach.

Operations Research increases the creative ability of the decision maker.

•          Operations Research is an interdisciplinary team approach.
•          Operations Research increases the creative ability of the decision maker.
•          Operations Research is a systems approach.
•          The problems an operations research analyst face is heterogeneous in nature, involving the number of variables and constraints, which are beyond the analytical ability of one person.
•          people from various disciplines are required to understand the operations research problem, who applies their special knowledge acquired through experience to get a better view of cause and effects of the events in the problem and to get a better solution to the problem on hand.
•         This type of team approach will reduce the risk of making wrong decisions.
•          Operations Research provides manager mathematical tools, techniques and various models to analyses the problem on hand and to evaluate the outcomes of various alternatives and make an optimal choice.
•          This will definitely help him in making better and quick decisions.
•          A manager, without the knowledge of these techniques has to make decisions by thumb rules or by guess work, which may click some times and many a time put him in trouble. Hence, a manager who uses Operations Research techniques will have a better creative ability than a manager who does not use the techniques.

Operations Research is a systems approach.

•          A business or a Government organization or a defense organization may be considered as a system having various sub-systems.
•          The decision made by any sub-system will have its effect on other sub-systems. Say for example, a decision taken by marketing department will have its effect on production department.
•          When dealing with Operations Research problems, one has to consider the entire system, and characteristics or sub- systems, the inter-relationship between sub-systems and then analyses the problem, search for a suitable model and get the solution for the problem. Hence we say Operations Research is a Systems Approach.