Operations research applications in Taiwan: A linguistic approach

This paper discusses the utilization of specified Operations Research (OR) techniques and the application areas of OR in Taiwan's companies. Since the data solicited from the business organizations are represented by fuzzy linguistic terms, a linguistic approach is used to transform the data to total utility values for ranking. The results show that decision making with computers and statistical forecasting are the two most frequently used OR techniques, while Markovian decision processes and queuing models are the two least used ones. Regarding the application areas, manufacturing firms consider production whereas service companies consider finance as the major area for application. Both agree that human resource is the area receiving the least attention. With the linguistic approach of this study, more valuable results are derived.