Delivering improvement from truth-The fragile link between analysis and effective change

In the history of operations research in industry there has been an abundance of analyses and recommendations produced in millions of man hours by dedicated Operational Research OR specialists. And yet the net improvement is significantly lower than expected. There are numerous reasons for this shortfall: incomplete analysis, too much theory, incomplete implementation, unreliable recommendations, or a combination of some of these reasons. By describing several examples, the major reasons for the fragility of the link between recommendation and implementation will be reviewed. What has to be done today to increase the likelihood of implementing an Operational Research OR recommendation and thus improve the performance of an industrial entity by using the power of Operational Research OR tools will then be described.