Operations Management

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Spring
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Operational Research ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Manufacturing Strategy ◽  
World War ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Managing Change ◽  
Empirical Research Methods ◽  
Materials Requirements Planning ◽  
Second World

The emergence of Operations Management (OM) in the early 1960s is described, showing how it was based on the adoption of mathematical models from operational research during the Second World War. Subsequent major developments such as Materials Requirements Planning, Japanese manufacturing, manufacturing strategy, and supply chain management, and their effect on the OM discipline are outlined. These often attempted to reconcile the reductive analytical approach of early OM with the consideration of larger systems. The adoption of empirical research methods and theory from outside OM during the 1990s is examined, as well as the ever-present tension between practical relevance and academic rigour. Finally, the chapter reflects on ‘where the management is’ in operations management. It suggests that the managerial substance of OM is in exercising judgement on issues not susceptible to modelling, generating alternative courses of action, managing change, and judging how and when to use models, given the specific context of the operation.

Operational Research and the British Bombing Offensive against Germany, 1941–1945: Calculating Choices in War

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 534-554
Author(s):  
Victor Bissonnette
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Operational Research ◽  
Scientific Discipline ◽  
Second World War ◽  
The Other ◽  
World War ◽  
Research Section ◽  
Second World ◽  
Conflicting Goals

Operational research is a scientific discipline that appeared in Great Britain on the eve of the Second World War. Bomber Command’s Operational research section began its studies in September 1941, using civilian scientists to analyse the bombing operations. Two potentially conflicting goals were pursued, one intended to maximize the offensive power against Germany, the other striving to minimize bomber losses. This article uses the Operational research performed during the conflict to illustrate the choices made by Bomber Command between those two possibilities, concluding on a clear priority in favour of the offensive.

David Lack and the birth of radar ornithology

2010 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D. Fox ◽  
Patrick D. L. Beasley
Keyword(s):  
Research Group ◽  
Operational Research ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Careful Observation ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Second World ◽  
Wartime Experience ◽  
David Lack

The use of radar to detect ships and aircraft became a key part of Britain's defence in the early part of the Second World War, but not all echoes were those of operational targets. David Lack, of the Army Operational Research Group, showed that many unexplained echoes came from flying birds, despite critics at the time. Careful observation combined with experiments provided observers with means of differentiating birds from boats and aircraft. Lack went on to use his wartime experience to launch the science of radar ornithology during the 1950s, which formed the basis of a development that continues to the present day with a range of more sophisticated radar equipment.

Operational Research, Its Methods and Application: A Review and Prospect

1960 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. Gould
Keyword(s):  
Technical Progress ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Operational Research ◽  
Nuclear Power ◽  
Combustion Engine ◽  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Jet Engine ◽  
Normal Limits ◽  
Second World

A feature of modern wars has been the impetus which is given to the development of scientific and technical progress, a phenomenon which is very easily explained by the general urgency of development under the pressure of war requirements, the removal of normal limits on expenditure and the realization of the part that science can play in the development of the engines of war. This was shown to a marked extent in the second world war and amongst the examples can be quoted the vast development of electronic equipment, the emergence of the jet engine as an alternative to the internal combustion engine for motive power and the realization of the use of nuclear power, in the first instance in the form of explosive energy. However, over and above these examples of scientific and technical progress there was one development in the second world war of particular interest, the use of the scientific method of ‘operational research’ (hereafter denoted by O.R.).

Gender and the Second World War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corinna Peniston-Bird ◽  
Emma Vickers
Keyword(s):  
Second World War ◽  
World War ◽  
Second World

Kapitalistische Krisen mit und ohne systemischer Herausforderung.

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (185) ◽  
pp. 543-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingo Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
World Market ◽  
Second World War ◽  
Deep Penetration ◽  
World War ◽  
Major Overhaul ◽  
Domestic Markets ◽  
Global Restructuring ◽  
Social Divisions ◽  
Class Power ◽  
Second World

This article draws on Marxist theories of crises, imperialism, and class formation to identify commonalities and differences between the stagnation of the 1930s and today. Its key argument is that the anti-systemic movements that existed in the 1930s and gained ground after the Second World War pushed capitalists to turn from imperialist expansion and rivalry to the deep penetration of domestic markets. By doing so they unleashed strong economic growth that allowed for social compromise without hurting profits. Yet, once labour and other social movements threatened to shift the balance of class power into their favor, capitalist counter-reform began. In its course, global restructuring, and notably the integration of Russia and China into the world market, created space for accumulation. The cause for the current stagnation is that this space has been used up. In the absence of systemic challenges capitalists have little reason to seek a major overhaul of their accumulation strategies that could help to overcome stagnation. Instead they prop up profits at the expense of the subaltern classes even if this prolongs stagnation and leads to sharper social divisions.

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