Reflections on fifty years of operational research

Abstract

This paper provides a particular perspective on developments in operational research (OR) over the past 50 years and attempts to pick out significant milestones in that trajectory. Emphasis is placed on the UK experience (rather than taking a supposed perspective independent of interactions with any specific social context); on the significance of techniques and where they came from; and on the role of social, political, intellectual, and economic factors in what has been happening to and within OR.

Keywords:

• history of OR
• OR techniques
• OR methodology

Acknowledgements

My thanks are due to Peter Bennett, Gavin Blackett, John Friend, John Ranyard, Maurice Shutler, Peter C Smith, Lyn Thomas, and Paul Thornton. They have allowed me to pick their brains but have no responsibility for the patterns I have made of their inputs.