The role of statistics in operations research: Some personal reflections

Statistics has a very important role to play in Operations Research (OR), yet many standard texts relegate it to a subordinate position behind, for example, deterministic optimisation techniques. I argue in this paper that statistics, and statistical thinking, are essential for the OR practitioner o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOrion (Johannesburg, South Africa) Vol. 25; no. 2; p. 107
Main Author Fatti, LP
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Johannesburg Operations Research Society of South Africa 01.12.2009
Operations Research Society of South Africa (ORSSA)
Subjects
Bayesian analysis
Operations research
Statistics
Studies
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Summary:Statistics has a very important role to play in Operations Research (OR), yet many standard texts relegate it to a subordinate position behind, for example, deterministic optimisation techniques. I argue in this paper that statistics, and statistical thinking, are essential for the OR practitioner operating in the real, uncertain world. Using many examples from my own experience, I demonstrate that statistics is very useful, and indeed essential, when tackling real-world OR problems. Many of these examples have not been published before and will therefore hopefully be of interest in themselves, as well as illustrations of the points I wish to make. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:2224-0004
0259-191X
2224-0004
DOI:10.5784/25-2-77