WHAT CAN O.R. DO FOR YOU?
7 Signs that an organisation could benefit from operational research
If one or more of the following signs applies to your situation, an O.R. professional may offer the insight you and your organisation need.
- The management face complex
decisions. Management are faced with more decision factors
than they feel they can cope with and key operational systems lack 'intelligence'. O.R. professionals can analyse complex situations and build intelligence into key systems, so as to reveal the truly best options.
- The management isn't sure what the main problem is. Managers know that they face problems but find it difficult to determine exactly what the problems are, or which areas and projects should be prioritised.
- The management is uncertain about potential outcomes. Managers face great uncertainty about the operating environment and what could happen as a consequence of various decisions. O.R. professionals can model various scenarios, undertake 'what-if' analyses and help to determine potential outcomes and strategies.
- The organisation is
having problems with processes. One or more of the organisation's
processes is broken or needs to work a lot better. Many small,
day-to-day decisions are not being made well, and it's
having an impact on the bottom line. O.R. can help improve
these processes and their outcomes dramatically.
- Management is troubled
by risk. Assessing
the risk of a new project or contract can be tricky. O.R.
can help to quantify risk, which is key to controlling it.
O.R. professionals can assist by planning how best to balance risk against
the gains an organisation can expect.
- The organisation
is not making the most of its data. Most organisations probably track information
about many aspects of their operations and have huge amounts of data they're not sure how to use for decision making. O.R. specialises in working with
data – extracting the most valuable information from what's
currently collected, and showing what additional data could be collected to increase the value even further.
- The organisation needs to
beat stiff competition. Others in the organisation's field are probably
already using O.R. to gain competitive advantage. An O.R. professional can help an organisation to stay
on top with the latest methods – and open up important
new sources of advantage.
