Operational Research (OR) is a scientific discipline that deals with the management of complex systems to enable decision makers to make better decisions. It is a real-world discipline, more than 70 years old, which is focused on the development of methods to help those who run organisations, and also to solve problems that underpin everyone’s daily life. As computers become increasingly powerful, OR continues to develop new methods and techniques to support decision-making. OR is a major contributor to the development of decision analytics, which has come to prominence because of the availability of big data.
Most of the problems that OR tackles and solves are messy and complex, often involving considerable uncertainty and multiple stakeholders with conflicting objectives. OR uses advanced analytics, modelling, problem structuring, simulation, optimisation and data science to determine the best solution to the problem and the best practical course of action.
Visit the Operational Research Society website.
