The History of Operational Research

In the World War II era, operational research was defined as "a scientific method of providing executive departments with a quantitative basis for decisions regarding the operations under their control." Other names for it included operational analysis (UK Ministry of Defence from 1962) and quantitative management.

Prior to the formal start of the field, early work in operational research was carried out by individuals such as Charles Babbage. His research into the cost of transportation and sorting of mail led to England's universal "Penny Post" in 1840, and studies into the dynamical behaviour of railway vehicles in defence of the GWR's broad gauge. Percy Bridgman brought operational research to bear on problems in physics in the 1920s and would later attempt to extend these to the social sciences. The modern field of operational research arose during World War II.

Modern operational research originated at theBawdsey Research Stationin the UK in 1937 and was the result of an initiative of the station's superintendent,A. P. Rowe. Rowe conceived the idea as a means to analyse and improve the working of the UK'searly warning radarsystem,Chain Home(CH). Initially, he analyzed the operating of the radar equipment and its communication networks, expanding later to include the operating personnel's behaviour. This revealed unappreciated limitations of the CH network and allowed remedial action to be taken.

Scientists in the United Kingdom including Patrick Blackett (later Lord Blackett OM PRS), Cecil Gordon, C. H. Waddington, Owen Wansbrough-Jones, Frank Yates, Jacob Bronowski and Freeman Dyson, and in the United States with George Dantzig looked for ways to make better decisions in such areas as logistics and training schedules. After the war it began to be applied to similar problems in industry.

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