Operational Research In War And Peace: The British Experience From The 1930s To 1970

Operational Research In War And Peace: The British Experience From The 1930s To 1970 PDF Author: Maurice W Kirby
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1783261323
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 478

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Book Description
This is the first of two projected volumes on the history of operational research (OR) in Britain commissioned by the UK Operational Research Society. Based upon a vast array of published and unpublished sources, the book provides an original account of the discipline's pre-war and wartime origins. This serves as a prelude to a wide-ranging analysis of the diffusion of OR into the public and private sectors after 1945. The chapters on the role of OR in iron and steel and coalmining, and its rapid adoption in the UK corporate sector after 1960, will be of particular interest to practitioners. The book also analyses and explains the diffusion of OR into local and central government and provides an informed commentary on the origins and subsequent history of the OR Society. Professor Kirby has related the development of OR in the UK to contemporary developments in the USA. The book concludes with a resume of the post-1970 debates concerning the future trajectory of OR.

Operational Research In War And Peace: The British Experience From The 1930s To 1970

Operational Research In War And Peace: The British Experience From The 1930s To 1970 PDF Author: Maurice W Kirby
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 1783261323
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 478

Get Book Here

Book Description
This is the first of two projected volumes on the history of operational research (OR) in Britain commissioned by the UK Operational Research Society. Based upon a vast array of published and unpublished sources, the book provides an original account of the discipline's pre-war and wartime origins. This serves as a prelude to a wide-ranging analysis of the diffusion of OR into the public and private sectors after 1945. The chapters on the role of OR in iron and steel and coalmining, and its rapid adoption in the UK corporate sector after 1960, will be of particular interest to practitioners. The book also analyses and explains the diffusion of OR into local and central government and provides an informed commentary on the origins and subsequent history of the OR Society. Professor Kirby has related the development of OR in the UK to contemporary developments in the USA. The book concludes with a resume of the post-1970 debates concerning the future trajectory of OR.

Operational Research in War and Peace

Operational Research in War and Peace PDF Author: M. W. Kirby
Publisher: Imperial College Press
ISBN: 9781860943669
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This invaluable book provides an account of Operational Research in Britain, the country of its inception, from the late 1930s to 1970. Originating in response to the country's air defence needs against the Luftwaffe, Operational Research had outstanding achievements as part of the 'secret war' against Nazi Germany. After 1945, the discipline began to be adopted in an increasing range of industries and services. In the 1960s -- by which time it was being incorporated in to university curricula -- the discipline began to penetrate into civil government departments. The history of Operational Research provides unique insights into the conduct of modern warfare, the professionalisation of business management and the modernisation of the civil service. The chronological coverage, from the late 1930s to 1970, coincides with 'golden age' of Operational Research, when the discipline was presented as a means of achieving optimum solutions to complex managerial problems. The book will be of interest to military and business historians, as well as to historians of public administration and higher education.

Profiles in Operations Research

Profiles in Operations Research PDF Author: Arjang A. Assad
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441962816
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 866

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Book Description
Profiles in Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators recounts the development of the field of Operations Research (OR), the science of decision making. The book traces the development of OR from its military origins to a mature discipline that is recognized worldwide for its contributions to managerial planning and complex global operations. Over the past six decades, OR analyses have impacted our daily lives: when making an airline or hotel reservation, waiting in line at a bank, getting the correctly blended fuel at the gas station, and ensuring that the book you are holding arrived at its destination on time. OR originated in the late 1930s when British scientists from various disciplines joined Royal Air Force officers to determine the most effective way to employ new radar technology for intercepting enemy aircraft. During World War II, similar applied research groups were formed to study, test, and evaluate military operations on both sides of the Atlantic. Their work resulted in great improvements—OR helped the Allies win the war. The scientific field that emerged from these studies was called operational research in the U.K. and operations research in the U.S. Today, OR provides a broad and powerful science to aid decision making. Profiles describes the lives and contributions of 43 OR pioneers and innovators and relates how these individuals, with varying backgrounds and diverse interests, were drawn to the nascent field of OR. The profiles also describe how OR techniques and applications expanded considerably beyond the military context to find new domains in business and industry. In addition to their scientific contributions, these profiles capture the life stories of the individuals—interwoven with personal tales, vivid vignettes, family backgrounds, and views of the mission and future of OR. Collectively, the profiles recount the fascinating story of the growth and development of a field enriched by the convergence of different disciplines. The Editors: Arjang A. Assad is Dean of the School of Management, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. Saul I. Gass is Professor Emeritus, Department of Decision, Operations & Information Technologies, Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park. From the Reviews Profiles In Operations Research: Pioneers and Innovators. Book Review by Nigel Cummings: U.K. OR Society's e-journal, Inside OR., Sept 2011. "I can thoroughly recommend this book. I found it both enlighteningand undeniably gripping, so much so in fact, you may find it difficultto put it down once you have commenced reading it. Arjang A. Assad and Saul I. Gass have created a masterwork whichwill serve to immortalise [stet] the pioneers of O.R. for many years to come." *For a list of all known typos, plus further discussion on the book, please visit http://profilesinoperationsresearch.com.

Blackett's War

Blackett's War PDF Author: Stephen Budiansky
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307743632
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
A Washington Post Notable Book In March 1941, after a year of devastating U-boat attacks, the British War Cabinet turned to an intensely private, bohemian physicist named Patrick Blackett to turn the tide of the naval campaign. Though he is little remembered today, Blackett did as much as anyone to defeat Nazi Germany, by revolutionizing the Allied anti-submarine effort through the disciplined, systematic implementation of simple mathematics and probability theory. This is the story of how British and American civilian intellectuals helped change the nature of twentieth-century warfare, by convincing disbelieving military brass to trust the new field of operational research.

Shaping Tomorrow's World

Shaping Tomorrow's World PDF Author: Elke Seefried
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1805395165
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 591

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Book Description
Shaping Tomorrow’s World tells the crucial story of how futures studies developed in West Germany, Europe, the US and within global futures networks from the 1940s to the 1980s. It charts the emergence of different approaches and thought styles within the field ranging from Cold War defense intellectuals such as Herman Kahn to critical peace activists like Robert Jungk. Engaging with the challenges of the looming nuclear war, the changing phases of the Cold War, ‘1968’, and the growing importance of both the Global South and environmentalism, this book argues that futures scholars actively contributed to these processes of change. This multiple award-winning study combines national and transnational perspectives to present a unique history of envisioning, forecasting, and shaping the future.

Britain's War Machine

Britain's War Machine PDF Author: David Edgerton
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199911509
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
The familiar image of the British in the Second World War is that of the plucky underdog taking on German might. David Edgerton's bold, compelling new history shows the conflict in a new light, with Britain as a very wealthy country, formidable in arms, ruthless in pursuit of its interests, and in command of a global production system. Rather than belittled by a Nazi behemoth, Britain arguably had the world's most advanced mechanized forces. It had not only a great empire, but allies large and small. Edgerton shows that Britain fought on many fronts and its many home fronts kept it exceptionally well supplied with weapons, food and oil, allowing it to mobilize to an extraordinary extent. It created and deployed a vast empire of machines, from the humble tramp steamer to the battleship, from the rifle to the tank, made in colossal factories the world over. Scientists and engineers invented new weapons, encouraged by a government and prime minister enthusiastic about the latest technologies. The British, indeed Churchillian, vision of war and modernity was challenged by repeated defeat at the hands of less well-equipped enemies. Yet the end result was a vindication of this vision. Like the United States, a powerful Britain won a cheap victory, while others paid a great price. Putting resources, machines and experts at the heart of a global rather than merely imperial story, Britain's War Machine demolishes timeworn myths about wartime Britain and gives us a groundbreaking and often unsettling picture of a great power in action.

The Routledge Companion to Production and Operations Management

The Routledge Companion to Production and Operations Management PDF Author: Martin K. Starr
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317419243
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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Book Description
This remarkable volume highlights the importance of Production and Operations Management (POM) as a field of study and research contributing to substantial business and social growth. The editors emphasize how POM works with a range of systems—agriculture, disaster management, e-commerce, healthcare, hospitality, military systems, not-for-profit, retail, sports, sustainability, telecommunications, and transport—and how it contributes to the growth of each. Martin K. Starr and Sushil K. Gupta gather an international team of experts to provide researchers and students with a panoramic vision of the field. Divided into eight parts, the book presents the history of POM, and establishes the foundation upon which POM has been built while also revisiting and revitalizing topics that have long been essential. It examines the significance of processes and projects to the fundamental growth of the POM field. Critical emerging themes and new research are examined with open minds and this is followed by opportunities to interface with other business functions. Finally, the next era is discussed in ways that combine practical skill with philosophy in its analysis of POM, including traditional and nontraditional applications, before concluding with the editors’ thoughts on the future of the discipline. Students of POM will find this a comprehensive, definitive resource on the state of the discipline and its future directions.

Mavericks of War

Mavericks of War PDF Author: Jason S Ridler
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0811767760
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description
During World War I, Oxford-trained archeologist Lawrence of Arabia used his knowledge of the Middle East to help organize the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire. In this entertaining and insightful book, Jason Ridler profiles the intellectuals, outsiders, and eccentrics who followed in Lawrence’s footsteps across the next hundred years of warfare and who relied on creativity, curiosity, and outside-the-box thinking to shape battlefields from World War II and Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan. They were Ivy Leaguers and Oxford scholars, anthropologists and archeologists, an ad executive, an international activist, a Peace Corps veteran, an émigré journalist (and former teenage member of the French Resistance), a diplomat—mavericks and oddballs, men and women—who, not always heralded or heeded and sometimes hated, challenged traditional military thought and helped win wars, secure peace, and change the face of modern war.

Warfare State

Warfare State PDF Author: David Edgerton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781139448741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
A challenge to the central theme of the existing histories of twentieth-century Britain, that the British state was a welfare state, this book argues that it was also a warfare state, which supported a powerful armaments industry. This insight implies major revisions to our understanding of twentieth-century British history, from appeasement, to wartime industrial and economic policy, and the place of science and technology in government. David Edgerton also shows how British intellectuals came to think of the state in terms of welfare and decline, and includes a devastating analysis of C. P. Snow's two cultures. This groundbreaking book offers a new, post-welfarist and post-declinist, account of Britain, and an original analysis of the relations of science, technology, industry and the military. It will be essential reading for those working on the history and historiography of twentieth-century Britain, the historical sociology of war and the history of science and technology.

OR, Defence and Security

OR, Defence and Security PDF Author: R. Forder
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137454075
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 218

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Book Description
OR, Defence and Security presents eleven papers, originally published in the Journal of the Operational Research Society and the Journal of Simulation, which exemplify important themes and topics in Operational Research (OR), as applied to modern-day defense and security issues. Topics range from frontline OR in a peace-support operation to new developments in combat modelling, and from the logistics of overseas intervention to defence planning at the top level. Also included are examples of applications addressing insurgency and terrorism. Edited by Dr Roger A. Forder, who had a distinguished career in OR in the UK Ministry of Defence, he has also written an authoritative introductory chapter which sets the papers in the context of the global strategic environment as it has evolved since the end of the Cold War. The OR Essentials series presents a unique cross-section of high quality research work fundamental to understanding contemporary issues and research in across a range of Operational Research (OR) topics. It brings together some of the best research papers from the esteemed Operational Research Society and its associated journals, also published by Palgrave Macmillan.