The Operations Research / Management Science Blog

An interesting article on New York Times talked about a management science professor, Philip M. Parker, who developed computer algorithms that collect a substantial amount of publicly available information on a particular subject and turn the results into books. He has generated more than 200,000 books in this way, making him “the most published author [...]

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Professor Michael Reich from Harvard School of Public Health and Professor Keizo Takemi from Japan’s Tokai University called for enhanced learning about health systems and an international research organization to coordinate the country-level health efforts. They also mentioned that global health partnerships should agree to allocate a set portion of their funding for Operational Research and knowledge discovery in health systems. Apparently, the importance of OR as a tool to enhance health care is increasingly being recognized internationally.

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I recently bumped into an article titled “Live chat: your new online salesperson” on CNNMoney.com. The article briefly talked about the potential of online instant messaging as a new sales tool for companies. More and more companies, especially those who sell their products online, are adding the live chat feature as a way to provide [...]

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According to an article titled “‘Talent on Demand’: Applying Supply Chain Management to People”, professor Peter Cappelli at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania claims that the principles of supply chain management can be applied to human resource management to help companies find the talents they need, when they need them at lower [...]

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According to a recent article titled “Thomson Holidays automates online pricing adjustments” written by Ian Grant and published on ComputerWeekly.com, a new automated pricing system has been developed and is being used by Thomson Holidays, the UK’s biggest tour operator, to maximize their revenue.
This type of OR system is not new, especially to airline companies. [...]

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Andrew Hines posted a new article titled “Key Terms and Players of Operations Research” on Bnet.com. The article is a guide to the major players in data analysis and mathematical engineering applied in solving key business problems. Companies such as Oracle, ILOG and Rockwell are mentioned and key OR terms such as business modeling and [...]

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INFORMS, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences, announced on Feb 7 the six finalists that will compete for the 2008 Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Operations Research and the Management Sciences in Baltimore on Apr 14.

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In his passionate talk, Dr. Hans Rosling tried to debunk the myths about economic and health issues in developing countries using state-of-the-art animation software developed by his foundation - Gapminder. The software, named Trendalyzer, converts boring data such as global income and health distribution into lively animations. Although the topic of his talk was not [...]

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Location-Allocation Problems
Abundant applications of Operations Research (OR) are found in logistics, the art of managing and controlling the flow of goods from the point where raw materials are collected to the point where finished products are delivered to the end consumers. In the case where a large number of customers reside in a large-scale region, [...]

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When tourists are having good times, they rarely wonder if there is a unique group of people who do scientific research day after day just to ensure that their trips go smoothly and are as hassle-free as possible. These people, known as Operations Research (OR) specialists, make hidden contributions to the world by making everyday [...]

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