Operations research in industry: New opportunities in a changing world

During the birth of operations research in World War II, some of the greatest Operational Research OR successes occurred when events were happening so fast that people did not have time to learn from experience. Then skilled scientific analysis often provided a critical advantage. Today an analogous situation is unfolding on a society-wide scale. Rapid technological advances are shrinking the globe, speeding social change, and offering the prospect of an improved quality of life. The potential for increased effectiveness arises amid stiff global competition. Opportunities for Operational Research OR analyses that will produce organizational and societal benefits are everywhere evident. Indeed, the complexity of today’s industry virutally requires OR/MS models. This paper, based on the Morse Lecture given in October 1990 at the ORSA/TIMS meeting in Philadelphia, maintains that the challenge of contributing to industrial productivity will lead OR/MS in new directions. These will include: finding methods for extracting decision making information out of massive amounts of automatically collected data; helping to shrink the time required to develop and install new products and processes; and empowering front-line workers in organizations to improve their effectiveness.