Operations Research

  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Michael Trick's Operations Research Blog

  • Reading Material While Snowed In

    Michael Trick
    8 Feb 2010 | 1:21 pm
    We had a record (21 inch) snowfall on Friday night, if you consider the 4th biggest snowfall of all time (since the 1860s) a record.  Since then, our city seems to be trying to turn this into our own little Katrina, showing very little planning or execution in getting the city back in working order.  City schools are closed and our street has yet to see a plow.  Once a car is painfully extracted from its snow cocoon, a curious Pittsburgh rite begins:  the placement of the kitchen chair.  Since the city is unable to actually remove any snow (it only pushes it around a bit), no on-street…

  • Make Amazon work Better

    Michael Trick
    3 Feb 2010 | 2:51 pm
    … if you are qualified, that is. I don’t normally post job ads on the blog:  there are other outlets for that.   But I have a few reasons for posting this one: I have always been interested in the operations research issues that Amazon faces.  How can they get so much stuff to me in one day?  And when I order twice in one day, why don’t they combine the orders into one box? The person asking is Shivi Shankaran who is a Tepper School MBA alum, and I love pointing out to my MBA students how operations research skills are a real competitive advantage for them.  Other…

  • What Panels would you Like to See?

    Michael Trick
    3 Feb 2010 | 6:32 am
    The organizers at this Fall’s INFORMS Meeting (theme of the conference: “Willie, Lance, and Optimizing the Music Scene in Austin”) have asked me to organize a series of panel discussions (or other “not four papers, each of 22.5 minutes” form) on topics of interest.  These panels should not be on technical topics but rather on issues of professional interest.  What would make for a good panel?  Here are a few possibilties: Blogging, Twitter, and Facebook: Role for Operations Researchers (of course!) Editors Panel:  How to be a successful author, referee, and…

  • AIMMS Contest

    Michael Trick
    1 Feb 2010 | 11:18 am
    I can’t resist competitions in operations research.  It brings out the competitor in me, even if it is more like ESPN and sports:  I like to watch others doing the work! AIMMS (whose software I use in class) is sponsoring their second modeling competition, in conjunction with this year’s MOPTA (Modeling and Optimization: Theory and Applications) conference.  Last year’s competition was on scheduling trucks subject to maintenance requirements.  This year’s competition is on creating financial portfolios that embed tax issues: Classical models used in portfolio…

  • Yo Trick! Where’ve you been?

    Michael Trick
    25 Jan 2010 | 9:03 am
    I was annoyed at myself this morning when I realized that January was almost over and I had only 3 blog posts.  Since my goal is 3/week, it is clear that I am getting the year off on the wrong foot.   I could, of course, put in eight or so posts on being too busy to post (kinda like a tweet I had about being too busy to tweet!) but I don’t think my audience would fall for that:  being OR people, they are pretty smart and can see through such an obvious ploy. But it has been an interesting month, so I thought I would update on some of things that are happening in my life.  Perhaps…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    ThinkOR

  • Bachelor Efficiency.

    6 Feb 2010 | 9:07 am
    It seems to be a known fact that confirmed bachelors are at times amazing inventors of time and labor saving methods, gizmos, and procedures. Here is another one.Recently I was visiting my bachelor friend John at his house and when I was rummaging in his drawers, searching in vain for a spoon, he has proudly shown me his latest labor saving device, (which also explained the lack of spoons in the drawers). He didn’t claim the idea as his own, on contrary; he said it is becoming a trend among their bachelor brethren, but I have seen it for the first time.He has purchased himself two…

  • Healthcare system improvement project management: making a big team work

    31 Jan 2010 | 7:46 pm
    It's tough chairing meetings, tougher chairing a big meeting (10-15 people), and tougher yet chairing a big meeting that's supposed to last an 8-hour day, one day a week for 6 months. A lot of planning goes into making such a day work with team members varying from the analytical kind to the "feeling" kind, from the surgical kind to the managerial kind. I'm slowly to get a hang of it having done it for a couple months now. The following is a lot of common sense, but if one doesn't have the chance to go through this kind of work with big teams, one may not think it so obvious as an approach.

  • CORU Clinical Operational Research Unit - London health care OR team

    29 Jan 2010 | 2:31 am
    CORU - Clinical Operational Research Unit, based in UCL (University College of London), is a London health care OR team - the first I've come across working in OR specialising in health care, since I moved across the pond last year from Canada.Needless to say, I was very happy to meet up with Martin Utley, Director of CORU, last week. Thanks for a great chat, Martin. I'm genuinely excited to link up with the CORU group, as I have not yet met any OR bodies in health in UK yet. Reading up on some publications that Martin sent over - I do miss the academic side of Operational Research. It was…

  • Psychotherapy and Operational Research / Change Management

    1 Jan 2010 | 4:29 pm
    Happy New Year to the ThinkOR readers and the Operational Research community.What better way to celebrate the new year than learning something new!1. "Although there are many details about our patients that we cannot know, nonetheless, our task is to delimit a system of observation in which we can trace the essential causal chains, and find accessible points, or handles, where interventions can be made."2. "...It is perhaps clear... that the choice of a system is not only dependent upon the nature of reality, but also upon the means we have to investigate it and the purpose of the inquiry.

  • Healthcare system improvement project management: how not to manage projects

    6 Nov 2009 | 12:45 am
    Lately, I am finding it difficult to not do the work myself in the projects I'm leading/managing. The excuse I've been using is "well, it's just easier to do it myself than asking someone else for it". However, I end up paying for it with way too many late nights working around the clock. I'll be the first to admit: this is the wrong way to manage projects. I end up feeling burned out and tired doing work that should have been done by others in the team, leaving me without enough energy or time to actually 'manage' the projects. Ultimately, if I continued this way, it would be both bad for me…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Punk Rock Operations Research

  • do not text and drive

    Laura
    8 Feb 2010 | 12:33 pm
    Despite what you might have read in the news lately, a recent OR paper suggests that you should not use your cell phone while driving. Alex Nikolaev, Matthew Robbins, and Sheldon Jacobson recently wrote a paper that analyzed traffic accidents in 62 counties in New York before and after a cell-phone-while-driving ban.  The University of Illinois press release summarizes their results: The team found that after banning hand-held cell phone use while driving, 46 counties in New York experienced lower fatal accident rates, 10 of which did so at a statistically significant level, while all 62…

  • OR and the Superbowl?

    Laura
    8 Feb 2010 | 7:22 am
    I hope you enjoyed the game last night. How was OR used for the Superbowl? I enjoyed reading about the logistics of the 2005 Superbowl in Jacksonville, Florida–including using cruise ships to provide enough hotel rooms–but I didn’t see anything similar for yesterday’s game.  Please share anything you’ve found. Are the commercials worth the price tag now that viewers watch their favorites online? What was your favorite commercial? Tagged: sports

  • The numbers behind health care – for a lay audience

    Laura
    31 Jan 2010 | 1:09 pm
    In October, This American Life produced two interesting episodes about health interventions and evidence-based medicine that I am just listening to now. These This American Life shows seem fresh and interesting, largely because they try to discuss health insurance/care issues from a quantitative, evidence-based perspective, even though cite few numbers in the episodes.  To illustrate this point, part of the first episode is even titled “Every CAT scan has nine lives,” referring to the side effects of over-using advanced medical techniques such as CAT scans. The More is Less…

  • a combinatorial coupon challenge

    Laura
    25 Jan 2010 | 6:36 am
    Normally I do not get that excited about grocery shopping, but this Sunday was an exception: I used OR to do my grocery shopping. Many grocery stores have promotions that encourage shoppers to buy 10 items, such as the 10 for $10 sales.  Oddly, there has typically been no penalty for buying fewer than ten items:  all items would be $1 each.  The sale merely suggests to stock up on ten or more sale items. This past year, my favorite grocery store (Kroger) has periodically offered a promotion that offers $5 cash back for every ten items purchased (but not any ten items, just the items…

  • do women read this blog?

    Laura
    20 Jan 2010 | 10:53 am
    I was fascinated by a post about science news and gender that I read this week on the Eureka Zone, a Times Online science blog. Science research councils have increasingly encouraged their grant-holders to engage with the public about their work and for many research grants some form of public engagement is now a necessity. But whom do these scientists end up engaging? They find–for reasons unexplained in the article–that men disproportionally read science news. [M]en are more likely to actively choose to consume science in their free time and the bias is much greater than that…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Jim Orlin's Blog

  • The game theoretic advantage goes to the Republicans

    jimorlin
    8 Feb 2010 | 6:29 am
    Pundits have asked themselves why it is so difficult for the Democrats to get things done even with 60 votes in the Senate, whereas the Republicans seem to do just fine with 50 votes in the Senate.  I suspect that there are a number of reasons for this.  But one reason that deserves mentioning is that Democrats believe in the importance of the federal government, and Republicans believe in the importance of thwarting Democrats. Consider the following table, which illustrates the values to Democrats and Republicans when the Democrats are in majorities in Congress. When Democrats control…

  • Random thoughts on the Massachusetts election

    jimorlin
    20 Jan 2010 | 7:26 am
    Yesterday, Scott Brown (a Republican) defeated a Martha Coakley (a Democrat) for the Senate seat in Massachusetts.  The Senate seat was generally known as Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat because Kennedy was the Massachusetts Senator since 1962.   I have a number of thoughts on the election.  Here they are, in somewhat random order. The election of Scott Brown will kill the health reform bill because it will give Republicans 41 Senate seats, enough to filibuster any bill.   Most Americans will be grateful, with notable exceptions including those who can’t afford health insurance, those…

  • The Senate is broken!

    jimorlin
    7 Jan 2010 | 2:09 pm
    US Citizens strongly believe in the United States Constitution and support it wholeheartedly.  This is somewhat paradoxical since most Americans cannot name the three branches of government (on the brighter side, 3/4 can name the three Stooges I could go on about how little Americans know about the Constitution, but I really want to address a different point.   The U.S. Senate is broken.  Paul Krugman articulated this point well, and I fully agree.  Here are three ways that it is broken: Because of the incredible overuse of “filibusters”, Democrats need 60 senators to get any bill…

  • On the Failed Airplane Bombing Attempt

    jimorlin
    31 Dec 2009 | 6:48 am
    When geese “attacked” US Air Flight 1549, and Captain Sully Sullenberger landed the plane in the Hudson river, Americans were overjoyed that disaster had been averted.   When Abdul Mudallah ignited an explosive device on Northwest Flight 253, and no one was injured, Americans spent the next week afraid, with countless criticisms of our government (many of which were justified).  In reality, we should all be very thankful. First of all, we should be thankful that disaster was averted.  This was great news.  We should also be thankful because we have learned a great deal of what went…

  • Traveling Incognito

    jimorlin
    18 Dec 2009 | 9:45 am
    Sarah Palin, in a recent vacation trip to Hawaii, wore a “McCain for President” visor, but crossed out the words.  Her explanation was:  ”I Sharpied the logo out on my sun visor so photographers would be less likely to recognize me”.  So, if I understand correctly, she thinks that photographers recognize her by her logo instead of the way she looks.  Or perhaps she thought that crossing out the logo would make her invisible.  In any case, despite all these strenuous efforts at traveling incognito, she was recognized.  Who could have guessed that photographers…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    greenOR

  • WSC 2009 Papers Available

    or4green
    26 Jan 2010 | 7:56 pm
    It looks like the recent 2009 Winter Simulation Conference had a nice collection of sustainability related talks in the ” Energy And Material Applications Stream”. The session titles were: Energy and Material Flow Business Processes Energy Capacity and Logistics Planning Monte-Carlo-Based Energy Simulations Electric Power Generation and Distribution Some topics covered were: biofuels emission reduction technologies wind, solar and geothermal power energy efficiency the smart grid hydrogen fuel Warren Powell and Thomas Spengler, both mentioned elsewhere on this site, were among the…

  • Odds and Ends: CO2 data, OM blog, Nanotech.

    or4green
    10 Jan 2010 | 7:02 pm
    NASA has made an extensive CO2 data set available. The data comes from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), an instrument that travels on the Aqua spacecraft. More information is available from NASA here. – There are some sustainbility-related posts from the Operations Management side of the house on a blog called “The Operations Room”. It is written by Kellogg School (Northwestern U.) professors Martin Lariviere and Gad Alon. Check out their green ops and sustainability tags. Don’t miss the “pizza box” post with the Walmart video about closing the…

  • C-ROADS Climate Model

    or4green
    5 Jan 2010 | 8:53 pm
    MIT system dynamicist John Sterman, who gave a plenary on climate policy modeling at INFORMS 2009, now has a podcast about that topic on the INFORMS Science of Better site. A good deal of the podcast serves as general background on climate change projections, international accords, and the concept of cap and trade. Sterman and his colleagues developed a climate policy model called C-ROADS, available from the website climateinteractive.org. C-ROADS models the impacts of policies (such as ones discussed at the recent Copenhagen meetings) on climate change. The base case of the model uses the…

  • Some Agriculture and Food Science Items

    or4green
    21 Dec 2009 | 7:22 pm
    There is now a Robert Mondavi Institute at UC-Davis. From a piece in the Santa Barbara Independent from last June: UC-Davis’ to-be-built Robert Mondavi Institute, a 31,000-square-foot headquarters for the school’s winemaking, brewing, and food science studies. With state-of-the-art in sustainability that includes LEED certification, green cleaning chemistry, stormwater catchment, and the goal of zero net water, the institute intends to dramatically reduce use of water in wine and beer making. – An interesting-sounding EJOR paper: Sustainable Vegetable Crop Supply Problem by dos…

  • O.R. Conferences

    or4green
    20 Dec 2009 | 7:18 pm
    Sustainability now shows up on the radar for most O.R. conferences. Here are some upcoming ones: - 2010 Health and Humanitarian Logistics Conference, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, March 4-5, 2010. List of topics includes “long term development and sustainability”. - 2010 INFORMS Conference on O.R. Practice, Orlando, Florida, April 18-20, 2010, sustainability is listed as one of several “Focused Tracks on In-Depth Real-World O.R. and Analytics”. Update: Here are a few of the talks (via the ENRE list): – International Resources Group: Gary Goldstein, Senior Manager,…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Matching Supply with Demand

  • The Lean Recession

    mswd
    21 Jan 2010 | 4:28 am
    The WSJ just posted (1/20/10) a small article about the semiconductor industry. Here is a line from the article:   Distributors controlled 36.9 days of inventory at the end of the third quarter, down 15% from a year earlier,according to iSuppli. In dollar terms, distributors held $4.8 billion worth of semiconductor inventory at the end of the third quarter, down 22%.   I couldn’t help but pull out Little’s Law to calculate the sales rate this year and last year. This year’s sales rate is R = I / T = 4.8 / (36.9 / 365) = 47.5$b. This year’s days-of-supply is down 15%…

  • Will Intel keep rolling?

    mswd
    15 Jan 2010 | 4:40 am
    Intel is on a roll. They just reported 2009 Q4 revenue of $10.6 billion with net income of $2.3 billion – not bad indeed! (See NY Times, 1/14/20).  The success is attributed to their recent investment in new plants ($7 billion), a resurgence in PC demand,  and their move to make chips for netbook and smartphones (their Atom chip targeted to those markets brought in $1.4 billion in revenue). Kudos to Intel, but will the fun last? How long can Intel succeed with its strategy to heavily invest in new manufacturing technology so that it can stay ahead of rivals? There are reasons to…

  • Facebook and Google – Part II

    mswd
    13 Jan 2010 | 9:46 am
    Two follow ups to our previous post about customer service at Google and Facebook. The NY Times quoted Andy Rubin, Google vice president for engineering in charge of Android technology, from an on-stage interview Mr. Rubin conducted at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:  “We have to get better at customer service,”.  I think I found video of that interview in the WSJ: click here.  You would think that his response would be “We have a fantastic product and we need to have equally fantastic support wrapped around it. We haven’t been where we want to be, but we are…

  • Death to Facebook – a self service nightmare

    mswd
    13 Jan 2010 | 5:11 am
     Before getting to Facebook, let’s start off with Google. The NY Times today reported on Google’s troubles with their customer service for their new phone, the Nexus One (see NY Times 1/12/10).  Apparently, if you have a problem with the phone, there is no one to call – no customer service representative to help you figure out why you can’t use your phone … nobody! This should not come as a surprise to those of us (all of us?) who use Google’s search page – nobody to call if you have problems with that either. But the big difference is that who…

  • Ford to build one Focus

    mswd
    9 Jan 2010 | 8:07 pm
    Ford is trying to do it again. Do you remember the Escort? It was suppose to be the “world car”, but apparently there was only about one part that was common between the U.S. and the European versions.  But that was then and this is now. Ford is (and they are serious this time) committed to developing *one* Focus for the world (see NY Times, 1/9/2010) The strategy is based on the premise that preferences are converging around the world and so the one world car strategy is feasible. Not only is this probably correct, it probably has been correct for quite some time –…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    FM Waves

  • Bullwhip Effect in Education

    Francisco Marco-Serrano
    2 Feb 2010 | 3:18 am
      Very recently we were able to read about how the economic recovery (not in Spain though! ) was amplifying the increase in the inventories all along the value chain: the bullwhip effect. As during the last quarter I’ve been thinking and discussing about the educational value chain (from primary school to continuous education after graduation, mainly [...]

  • Not Only Common Sense.

    Francisco Marco-Serrano
    15 Jan 2010 | 5:49 am
      I would say Operations Research is about applying common sense… although upgraded by means of maths and technology. Me   Something I wanted to say, just for the record. Similar Posts: What’s the DopplERP plan? 2006 World Cup 101% = [(100 + 1) / 100] x 100

  • 2010, not 2012 [insert scary face here]

    Francisco Marco-Serrano
    31 Dec 2009 | 10:15 am
      This year we’re leaving (or, rephrasing, that is leaving us) is more than a dying year, is the end of a decade. Actually, I’d say is not dying but ‘leaving to a better life’. Last century we had to wait until 1929 to fall to our knees; hell awaits!, we managed to start it in [...]

  • The More I Evolve…

    Francisco Marco-Serrano
    15 Dec 2009 | 3:59 am
      …in my professional, academic, and personal life, the more I think Operations Research can manage to sort out our operational, tactical, and strategic problems (call me cocky: ALL!).   Why don’t we see more intensive use of these tools and applications?:   1 – Lack of evangelism?; INFORMS is doing a good job though (by the way, kudos for [...]

  • What’s the DopplERP plan?

    Francisco Marco-Serrano
    14 Nov 2009 | 9:51 am
      Since I decided years ago (around 2003) that I needed to be active to improve my knowledge on Operations Research I’ve tried to look at the real life as an inspiration; that’s how in 2005 ‘FM Waves’ was born, as a notepad for my thoughts. Then, it’s when I took my courses on Operations Management, that [...]
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    Maximize Productivity with Industrial Engineer and Operations Research Tools

  • When to use Excel and when to use R

    Larry
    1 Feb 2010 | 9:11 am
    There is a great post in O'Reilly's Answers that talks about when to use Excel and when to use R. I have been using a lot of R lately to perform some data analysis and logistic regression. R is a great tool for statistical analysis. R is also free and open source.I am going to be doing some more blogging about statistics and using R (R-project homepage). There is a huge amount of uses with R and I'm sure I will only hit the tip of the iceberg. If you have experience in R please let me know and I would love to share your experiences.

  • 8 Open Source Business Intelligence Software

    Larry
    5 Jan 2010 | 5:22 am
    Business Intelligence software has become a necessity for data rich companies. Business Intelligence software is the software that handles the large amounts of data and transforms it into meaningful information. Of course a lot of the transformation requires technical know-how such as data mining and operations research. Linux Links has put together the top Free and Open Source Business Intelligence software available. Some I have already linked before but there are new ones on this list I was not aware.PentahoRapidminerJasperReports community editioniReportOpenIBIRT ProjectAgata…

  • Business Intelligence one of hottest skills for 2010

    Larry
    31 Dec 2009 | 3:12 pm
    Computerworld takes a look at the main needs for 2010 and finds that Business Intelligence will be a hot skill. This article is mainly about the IT world but it reflects a growing need for data transformation and data mining in business today. There is a lot that goes into Business Intelligence other than just setting up an enterprise ready database system. The article mentions that there will be a need for analysis and decision making. From the article...More important than a BI expert, though, are programmer/analysts who can relate the nitty-gritty of data tables, database joins and data…

  • Learn to program in Python by making games

    Larry
    29 Dec 2009 | 7:49 pm
    Python is a great programming language for applying some basic mathematical programming. Here is an article via Makezine.com blog about how to learn Python by writing games. This is a follow up to my last article on Artificial Intelligence with Python. Learning a new programming language can be a bit dull. I thought it might be more fun to learn how to write games in Python. Perhaps this is something to do for while off for the New Year.

  • Artificial Intelligence with Python

    Larry
    18 Dec 2009 | 8:25 am
    While stumbling across cyberspace looking for some interesting Python tools and tutorials I found this rather interesting webcast. The video is of Raymond Hettinger at PyCon 2009. Raymond describes the usefulness of Python with applying artificial intelligence and data mining. This talk is very interesting to see how useful of a tool Python can be to performing some relevant Operations Research tasks specifically with data manipulation and learning. As I have mentioned before Open Source software offers a lot in the way of Operations Research tools. I hope you enjoy it as much as I…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    RENeW

  • The Cybersecurity Website is Now Live!

    8 Feb 2010 | 4:33 am
    The Cybersecurity website that details the breadth and depth of research and education activities at UMass Amherst on this topic is now live. We are delighted with this important initiative that includes faculty and students from such outstanding departments and schools at UMass Amherst as: Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, Political Science, Communications, and the Isenberg School of Management.You will find on this site more information about the various campus-wide activities, including the relevant…

  • Braess paradox, queuing (standing in line), and the Boston Globe

    6 Feb 2010 | 2:27 pm
    I was pleased to see James Parker's column in the Boston Globe on queuing, which he says is what separates man from beasts. He gives credit to anthropologists for noting that queuing represents stable cooperative equilibrium and then goes out to note the Braess paradox, due to Professor Dietrich Braess, which showed that the addition of a new road may make everyone worse off in terms of travel time in the network. However, in the column he misrepresents the Braess paradox by saying that it reflects that two lines are shorter than a single line or queue. In the Braess paradox, the addition of…

  • Boston, Cambridge, and Upcoming Conference in Buenos Aires

    6 Feb 2010 | 4:18 am
    I was in Boston and Cambridge this past week where the roads and streets were clear of snow, unlike the Washington DC area, which is being pummeled by a huge snowstorm that has grounded travel to a halt.Having spent a year as a Science Fellow at Harvard in 2005-2006 at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, I like to go back fairly regularly. Cambridge and Boston are two magnificent locations in my state of Massachusetts and I get my muse in those places (among others).While in Cambridge, I met the Executive Director of the Latin America Research Center of the Graduate School of Business…

  • International Collaborations and Innovation as a Contact Sport

    3 Feb 2010 | 3:34 pm
    Dr. Indira V. Samarasekera, the President of the University of Alberta in Canada, wrote an article, "Universities Need a New Social Contract," that was published in Nature, as an opinion piece in the November 12, 2009 issue. The eloquent piece had numerous excellent ideas including that leaders from major government funding agencies from across the world -- particularly from North America, Europe, India, and China should be brought together to help to define a funding model designed to award interdisciplinary, inter-institutional and international projects. She argued that many of the most…

  • The Pooling of Resources for Humanitarian Operations

    2 Feb 2010 | 4:33 pm
    The New York Times has a very interesting, provocative article on the pooling of resources for humanitarian operations and, in particular, as applied to Haiti, but the topic is broader and relevant in other disaster and humanitarian relief contexts. The article is focused on the pooling of financial resources and notes that the Red Cross, although it did not have a large presence in Haiti prior to the earthquake, because of its brand name recognition, has received many more financial donations than has Partners in Health, which has had a large presence in Haiti, even before the earthquake…
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    OR at Work

  • Risky Business

    31 Jan 2010 | 8:13 am
    No, this is not yet another review of Tom Cruise’s breakthrough movie. It is about how decision makers in governments and business make their decisions, especially when the dynamics of the challenge they are facing is misunderstood. Understanding the dynamics of a system requires mastery of concepts like stocks, flows, delays, nonlinearities, feedback loops and uncertainty. Lack of understanding these concepts causes decision makers to make the wrong decisions. With the use of simple and easy to grasp models an analytical consultant can help government and business to make better decisions…

  • Mexican flu vaccine campaign; a false positive?

    30 Dec 2009 | 8:29 am
    Great news this week, the Mexican flu epidemic is officially over in the Netherlands. In July of this year, the first cases of Mexican flu were reported. At that time the World Health Organisation (WHO) already had signalled that the danger of a flu pandemic was growing and every country was advised to take appropriate counter measures. One in every 3 persons would get infected if no counter measures were taken. In the Netherlands this lead to the “Grip op Griep” campaign informing people on how to reduce the chances of getting infected. With silly posters people were told how to sneeze…

  • Your buying habits revealed!

    27 Nov 2009 | 5:47 am
    You probably do not even think about it when you pay at the checkout counter of your local retailer, but retailers have been collecting massive amounts of data on your shopping for several years now. Ahold alone has registered 32 billion ticket lines over the past 7 years; every week 80 million ticket lines are added to that. That mountain of data has been collecting dust over the past few years. Mathematical modelling, statistical techniques and computer power have given the retailer the tools to mine for gold. But are they making the most of it?Recently I was invited by the VARA, a Dutch…

  • Go GREEN!

    25 Oct 2009 | 8:23 am
    Last week I had a presentation at the ORTEC user conference, together with one of my friends form the Antwerp University, Patrick Schittekat. Also Walther Ploos van Amstel was there with a nice speech on the diminishing elasticity in logistics. Our subject was on how to be green from an environmental perspective but still be competitive. We state that instead of waiting for the governments to come up with measures to reduce emissions, companies should re-think their supply chain now. That way companies can turn going green from a liability into an asset and are well prepared for the future.

  • What about Risk?

    26 Sep 2009 | 8:09 am
    One of the hot topics in the Dutch news these weeks is the financial disaster the construction of a metro line in Amsterdam is causing. A quantative based risk assessment would have lead to better estimation of the financial risks upfront and better risk mitigation strategies during the project.At the start of the project the total investment for the metro line was estimated to be €430 million. Based on this estimation the Amsterdam council decided to go ahead with the plan. Besides the relief the metro would bring to the dense traffic in the centre of the city, making it more healthier to…
 
  • add this feed to my.Alltop
    WordPress Tag: Operations Research

  • Operations Research Applications in the field of Information and Communication Technologies

    Nimmy
    7 Feb 2010 | 9:43 pm
    This post may not make sense to most of my readers out there.But I had spent lot,hell lot of time, in gathering information for this particular assignment. Thought of posting it,so that somebody else will find it easier in future.. Operations Research Applications in the field of Information and Communication Technologies Abstract: Traditionally, Operations Research is the scientific study of logistic networks to provide for decision support at all levels in order to optimize production and distribution of the commodity flows. Nowadays, these logistic networks have become very large and may…

  • OR and Crisis Camp

    Abraham Flaxman
    25 Jan 2010 | 8:00 am
    When the earthquake devastated Haiti, Laura McLay asked if OR is helping with the relief efforts.  I’ve been wondering the same thing, and I went to a “Crisis Camp” this weekend to see if there is anywhere I could plug in. This Crisis Camp business is hard to describe, and I didn’t really know what I was getting into when I showed up, and it seems like most of the other participants didn’t either.  But we all woke up for a 9 AM meeting on Saturday, and we all wanted to do something good for the people of Haiti. This isn’t exactly something you can make an…

  • Mapping the Afghanistan Mess

    SEB
    23 Dec 2009 | 4:07 am
    From the economics blog Marginal Revolution and the New York Times, there is a very ugly mess showing the complexity in Afghanistan.  Now, what does this have to do with Villanova’s EMBA?  At heart, this is fundamentally an Operations Research focused MBA.  Interdisciplinary studies in economics, finance, operations, logistics, communication, technology, globalization.  You get the point. The original slides can be found here.  Anyone from the Class of 2010 want to work up an iThink model?  The Joint Staff would most likely be quite appreciative.

  • Russ Ackoff, Systems Thinking, and Enterprise 2.0

    Rick Ladd
    14 Dec 2009 | 8:03 am
    I posted another “tribute” to Russ Ackoff in my blog at the 2.0 Adoption Council’s collaborative site and thought to share it outside the Council as well. Our site is enabled by Jive SBS and is private, so I’d like to share it with others. What follows, then, is the post as I wrote it the other day: I am of the opinion it takes a certain kind of sensibility to understand how and why Enterprise 2.0 fits into an organization and, more importantly, how it can increase the effectiveness of everyone and everything with respect to how that organization realizes its goals. In…

  • Zauberformel für Partner-Vermittlungen entdeckt

    nigecus
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:26 am
    Gerade gefunden auf BodySpaceSociety, Love – the Swiss way: sociologists want to “optimize the marri
Log in