Sample Question About Operations Research

Questions: Briefly describe the application of operations Research in the following functional areas of management, namely finance, marketing personnel and production.

Answer: In the recent years, OR has entered successfully many different areas of research for military, government, service organizations and industry. We shall briefly describe some of the application of OR in the functional areas of management.

FINANCE:

i) Cash flow analysis, long range capital requirements.
ii) Credits policies, Credit risks.
iii) Claim and complaint procedures.

MARKETING:

i) Production selection, timing and competitive actions.
ii) Advertising media with respect to cost and time.
iii) Number of salesmen, frequently of calling of accounts etc.

PERSONNEL:

i) Forecasting the manpower requirement, recruitment policies and assignment of jobs.
ii) Selection of suitable personnel with due consideration for age and skills etc.
iii) Determination of optimum number of persons for each service centre.

PRODUCTION:

i) Scheduling and sequencing the production run by proper allocation of machines.
ii) Calculating the optimal product mix
iii) Selection, location and design of the sites for the production plant.