Pre-1937 Stage Set: Centuries of progress in calculus, probability and statistics, and other math methods, along with progress in the real-world use of science and math in engineering, pave the way for scientific assistance to decision-makers. Despite isolated applications, none result in continuing groups to address multiple needs of executives and leaders.
1937 Operations Research Born: Civilian scientists working with the British military begin a program to apply advanced methods — mainly mathematical — to solve urgent problems in decision-making and management. Coining the name "operational research," they help devise radar and fighter plane responses to possible Nazi air attack. This leads to a crucial role in the Battle of Britain, won by a narrow margin. Later, operational research groups expand to assist with the battle against U-boats and other life-and-death struggles of World War II.
1942 U. S. Navy Organizes ASW Operations Research: Heavy allied losses to Nazi U-boats prompt the U. S. Navy to organize the Antisubmarine Warfare Operations Research Group, under MIT physicist Philip M. Morse. To hunt U-boats, mathematical search theory is invented. Great success encourages expansion of operations research within the Navy, Air Force, and Army. OR makes substantial contributions to winning World War II.
1946 First OR Text Book Appears: Originally classified, then published by MIT and Wiley in 1951, the first text – Methods of Operations Research by Philip M. Morse and George E. Kimball – helps move OR toward acknowledgement as a new applied-science profession.
1947 Linear Programming Invented: OR will inspire many new math methods. A spectacular example is the invention of George B. Dantzig called linear programming, with its solution procedure the Simplex Method. Subject of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, LP is an "optimization" method that enables decision-makers to find the best among a mind-boggling number of possible choices. Now LP is applied extensively, not only by OR in organizations large and small, but also in non-OR parts of engineering and science. Numerous other optimization methods subsequently join the OR repertoire, including integer programming, general nonlinear programming, dynamic programming, and decision analysis.
1948 RAND Corporation Founded: RAND, the first think tank, draws heavily on ideas and personnel from OR community.
1949 Monte Carlo Simulation Emerges: Mathematician John von Neumann and others lay groundwork for what presently is called "computer simulation." Modern computer simulation, routinely accompanied by animation to show the simulated activity in action, is employed in OR applications by organizations ranging from the armed forces to Ford and General Motors. The phrase "Monte Carlo" refers to incorporating probabilities to describe quantities (like the time to pass through a production workstation) whose values vary from instance to instance.
1950 A Beautiful Mind Advances Game Theory: On the long and growing list of OR methods is game theory, whose origins go back as far as 1913. The recent movie A Beautiful Mind brings to public attention (without details) an important contribution to game theory called Nash equilibrium, discovered by mathematician John F. Nash and recognized in the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
*1952 OR Profession Formally Established in the U.S.: Founding of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA) and its journal Operations Research mark formal establishment of operations research as a profession in the U.S. The OR profession enjoys strong connections to all three main branches of technology – mathematics, engineering, and science.
1955 Petroleum Industry Relies on OR: ESSO Standard Oil Company applies linear programming and other OR methods to optimize the daily operation of oil refineries. This is an early example of OR helping to upgrade an essential industrial function.
1960 Artificial Intelligence Starts: "AI/expert systems" join the extensive list of methods applied in OR. The associated techniques later give rise to a number of OR-utilized procedures with exotic names like neural networks, simulated annealing, and genetic algorithms.
1969 Internet’s First Site Opens: The first site of what initially was called ARPANET is opened by operations researcher Leonard Kleinrock at UCLA. Kleinrock is an expert on packet switching, used in ARPANET, and on queueing (waiting-line) models, used throughout the OR community.
1971 Decision Support System Enters the Vocabulary: Computer vendors often say the major benefit of computerization is furnishing crucial information to decision-makers. Now commonly called decision support systems, managerial computer-and-communication systems that incorporate best-available analysis depend on OR for their analytical contents.
1972 OR World Series Begins: The Franz Edelman competition – an annual, international "World Series of OR" – bases awards on practical benefits realized. Over the years, first-prize winners include the San Francisco police department, U. S. Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), American Airlines, SNCF (French Railway), AT&T, Tata Iron and Steel Company (India), Bosques Arauco, S. A. (Chile), IBM, and Merrill Lynch.
1980 Revenue Management Debuted by American Airlines: Pioneered by OR at American Airlines, revenue management – combining accurate demand forecasts with intelligent dynamic pricing — soon becomes standard in the airline industry, then spreads to hotels, car rental companies, and manufacturing.
1990 Supply Chain Management Introduced: Advances in computers, communication, and OR methods permit the first successful attempts to do complex balancing necessary to find the best overall combination of suppliers, transportation, production, warehousing, and inventories. Since, diverse organizations that deal with tangible goods have implemented this analysis, and supply chain management has become a standard function.
1990 Financial Engineering Coined: Underscoring the variety of names for OR specialties, the term "financial engineering" appears for OR in finance. Later, marketing engineering will be introduced for OR in marketing. OR in production and related operations, meanwhile, takes such names as operations analysis and operations management.
1991 INFORMS Prize Recognizes Sustained OR Success: The INFORMS Prize (from 1991 to 1994 the ORSA Prize) recognizes organizations that benefited from making OR analysis a regular practice. Winners include Federal Express, San Miguel Corporation (Philippines), New York City’s Office of Management and Budget, United Airlines, US West, and Pfizer.
1995 INFORMS Unifies OR and the Management Sciences: The Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) is created through the merger of the Operations Research Society of America (ORSA), founded in 1952, and The Institute of Management Sciences (TIMS), founded in 1953.
1996 E-Commerce Gets Underway: The emergence of e-commerce is accompanied by the spread of facilitating OR applications such as online bidding and the analysis of voluminous customer data (called data mining).
2001 Airlines Recover from 9/11: OR computer models regularly employed for crew and flight scheduling and disruption recovery enable airlines to reestablish operations rapidly after terrorist attacks.
*2002 OR Profession in the U.S Celebrates 50th Anniversary: Since formal establishment 50 years ago, the OR profession in the U. S. has helped improve the effectiveness of organizations in all sectors of business, government, the military, and health care. Evolving technology and accumulating experience should allow OR to make even greater contributions in the years ahead.