Monday, December 30, 2019

Uses of operational research in business - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1520 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Business Essay Type Argumentative essay Did you like this example? Brief 69251 Title: Uses of OR (operational research) in business I. Introduction The main characteristic of business has always been the combination of a series of actions that can lead to the creation of a profit for its owner. On the other hand, the volume and the complexity of the above actions have been differentiated because of the changes in the social and the science sectors. However, there is an element of the commercial activity that still remains the same and which seems to define the productivity and the development of the business. This element is the necessity for the presence of a person (or persons) who will have the exclusive task of measuring the uncertainty (regarding the business activities), of allocating the resources, of planning projects and organizing, generally, the administrative force of an enterprise (public or private) in a way that the latter can confront most of the unexpected situations that are related with the business activity. II. Operational Resear ch – Definition and Theories The task of defining the Operational Research to its full meaning and purpose is not an easy one. There have been some definitions, each one from a different point of view but all of them are giving somehow a completed description for the role of the OR in the business environment. According to Duckworth, W. E., Gear, A. E., Lockett (1977, 1) ‘operational research is the study of administrative systems pursued in the same scientific manner in which systems in physics, chemistry and biology are studied in the natural sciences’. The above definition, although a distinctive one we can say, does not refer to the functions of the OR and its specific role in the business environment. Cohen S. S. (1985, 1) states that ‘operational research is the science of planning and executing an operation to make the most economical use of the resources available’. The definition of Cohen seems to be much more completed as it refers to th e role and the aim of OR regarding the business development. On the other hand, Littlechild L.C. (1977) does not refer to a specific definition for the OR but proceed to the presentation of the ten stages that, according to his opinion, have to be followed when applying the OR in business. The stages are Littlechild L.C. (1977, 15-16): ‘1. describe problem in its context, 2. collect preliminary information, 3. define problem explicitly, 4. set study objectives, 5. formulate the OR problems, 6. construct model, 7. collect detailed data, 8. test model, 9. select solution from alternatives, 10. implement and monitor solution’. The above ‘stages’ or steps refer to the methodology that has to be followed during the application of OR in a business environment. These ‘steps’ seem to be a very detailed presentation of the whole functions of OR in a business, however we can notice the lack of the aim and the reasoning of existence of OR. The OR, due to its extended flexibility, can be used in any business environment, bearing in mind that, in its case, we have to adapt the techniques used in OR to the needs of the specific enterprise. III. Techniques and Applications of OR The application of OR have met difficulties especially due to the constant changes of the science and the technology. A theory that has been expressed in order to help to the solution of problems related with the application of technology to the everyday life is the ‘Queueing theory’ (Littlechild L.C. (1977, 160). The above theory, which is based to the existence of queues, is mainly concerned with problems such as: congestion in telephone systems, airports and harbours, machines out of action waiting for repair and so on. Cohen S. S. (1985, 15) refers to ‘Linear Programming’ a technique used ‘to find a combination of different types of activities which fully exploits the available resources – when the restrictions on the resources have a simple algebraic form’. This technique is called ‘Linear Programming’ (Cohen S. S., 1985, 15). Another method, the decision tree one is applied by ‘laying out the available information in a clear and convenient way, known as a decision tree, so that the manager can relatively easy trace out the implications of a particular policy, which corresponds to a particular branch of the tree’ (Kidd J B in Littlechild S. C., 1977, 207). Operational research can also have many other applications in its pure form or in an non – so distinctive role, (see also Duckworth, W. E., Gear, A. E., Lockett 1977, 180-184), like the business forecasting, the corporate planning, the discounted cash flow (DCF) methods, the cost-benefit analysis, the output budgeting and so on. Of course, the techniques of OR used inside each business are in any case adapted to the specific requirements and as a result they can present different formulations and results even when referring to the same industry. Under these circumstances, the problems that may occur during their application are been confronted in a ‘local’ level (Samaddar, S., Rabinowitz, G., Zhang, G. P., 2005). IV. Problems arising when applying the OR in a business environment The application of the OR inside a business has to be adapted to the needs and the requirements of the specific enterprise. First of all the management team that carries out the operational research in order to take decisions for the firm’s strategy, has to take into account the ‘particular national elements’ that characterize the country that this business operates (Pagell, M., Katz, J. P., Sheu, C., 2005, 4, ReVelle, C. S., Eiselt, H. A., 2005). At a next level, there should be paid a lot of attention regarding to the data gathered (i.e. examination of equivalence and accuracy) especially those which were collected through international markets surveys (see also Van Herk, H., Poortinga, Y. H., Verhallen, 2005). When referring to the operational research of a business in general, the knowledge gained or gathered is in any case valuable. Under these circumstances we have to bear in mind when managing, exploiting or transferring it that every measure of safety has be taken in order to avoid its unwilling modification or even its damage (Hall, R., Andriani, P., 2003, Nicolau, J. L., 2005, Guzman, G. A. C., Wilson, J., 2005). We should notice that, the data involved in the OR, cannot give a totally clear and specific image for the firm’s financial future (sometimes there is even uncertainty for the current situation), and it’s the management’s role to handle this problem by relevant measures assuming there are always factors that remain unknown but can have unexpected consequences under circumstances of pressure or of radical changes (see also Herroelen, W., Leus, R., 2004, Ozdemir, M. S., Saaty, T. L., 2004, Cao, Q. , Patterson, W., Bai, X., 2005, Prajogo, D. I., Sohal, A. S., 2004). V. Conclusion The operational research has a decisive role in a business operation, both to its daily activities and to its future strategy. However, in order to achieve its full potential (regarding the business development) it has to be adapted every time in the requirements of the specific enterprise and not to be limited to specific rules and conditions. We should also mention the very important role of the management team towards this direction. The operational research, like every other business activity, needs to be designed, formulated and executed applying a specific methodology – the one that should be evaluated as the most suitable – and under a thorough examination and controlling of the data and the resources involved. In this way it will help directly to the business development and it will not remain just another effort to enforce the productivity and – as a result – the profit. References Brignall, M., ‘Rise: Set course: Operational research’, The Guardian, 21/2/2004, 7 Cao, Q., Patterson, W., Bai, X., (2005), ‘Reexamination of processing time uncertainty’, European Journal of Operational Research, 164, 185-194 Cohen, S. S., Operational Research, 1st edition, 1985 Duckworth, W. E., Gear, A. E., Lockett, A.G., A guide to Operational Research, 3rd edition, 1977 Guzman, G. A. C., Wilson, J., (2005) ‘The ‘soft’ dimension of organizational knowledge transfer’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 9, no 2, 59-74 Hall, R., Andriani, P., (2003), ‘Managing knowledge associated with innovation, Journal of Business Research, vol. 56, 145-152 Herroelen, W., Leus, R., (2004), ‘Project scheduling under uncertainty: Survey and research potentials, European Journal of Operational Research, 165, 289-306 Littlechild, S. C., Operational Research for Managers, 1st edition, 1977 Nicolau, J. L., (2005), ‘Valuing the business environment on a daily basis’, European Journal of Operational Research, 164, 217-224 Ozdemir, M. S., Saaty, T. L., (2004), ‘The unknown in decision making – What to do about it’, European Journal of Operational Research (article in press) Pagell, M., Katz, J. P., Sheu, C., (2005), ‘The importance of national culture in operations management research’, International journal of Operations and Production Management, vol. 25, no 4, 2005, 371-394 Prajogo, D. I., Sohal, A. S., (2004), ‘The relationship between organizational strategy, total quality management (TQM), and organization performance – the mediating role of TQM, European Journal of Operational Research, 168, p. 35-50 ReVelle, C. S., Eiselt, H. A., (2005), ‘Location analysis: A synthesis and survey’, European Journal of Operational Research, 165, 1-19 Samaddar, S., Rabinowitz, G., Zhang, G. P., (2005), ‘An experimental analysis of solution performance in a resource sharing and scheduling problem’, European Journal of Operational Research, 165, 139-156 Van Herk, H., Poortinga, Y. H., Verhallen, (2005), ‘Equivalence of survey data: relevance for international marketing’, European Journal of Marketing, vol. 39, no 3/4, p. 351-364 Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Uses of operational research in business" essay for you Create order

Saturday, December 21, 2019

Enterprise Data Analysis And Visualization - 810 Words

Enterprise Data Analysis and Visualization: An Interview Study ABSTRACT Organizations rely on data analysts to model customer engagement, streamline operations, improve production, inform business decisions, and combat fraud. Numerous analysis and visualization advanced tools available for analysts to work, but there are little research goes on how analysis happens in companies. To better understand the enterprise analysts’ ecosystem, we conducted semi structured interviews with 35 data analysts from 25 organizations. Based on our interview data, we characterize the process of industrial data analysis and document how organizational features of an enterprise impact it. We describe recurring pain points, outstanding challenges, and barriers to adoption for visual analytic tools. INTRODUCTION: The researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with 35 analysts from various sectors. They asked analysts to walk them through the typical tasks they perform, the tools analysts use, the challenges they encounter, and the organizational context in which analysis takes place. In this paper, we present the results and analysis of these interviews. The respondents are well-described by three archetypes. We find that these archetypes vary widely in programming proficiency, reliance on Information technology (IT) staff and diversity of tasks, and vary less in statistical proficiency. We describe how collaboration takes place between analysts. We find that analysts seldom shareShow MoreRelatedComputer Drawing1019 Words   |  5 Pagesconcerned with the practical aspects of engineering in planning and production. 2. How can visualizing help an engineer in the design process? Visualization can help an engineer to mentally picture things that do not exist. Besides, engineers with good visualization ability are able to picture things in their minds. 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Good knowledge of Dimensional Modeling and NormalizationRead MoreFunctionality Within Graph Theory And Network Analysis Essay1439 Words   |  6 PagesFunctionality in SNA(Social Network Analysis)[7] Functionalities are firstly the visualization of the network, secondly the computation of statistics based on nodes and on edges, and finally, community detection (or clustering) 1)Visualization of the network- Methods 1) FruchtermanReingold 2) Kamada-Kawai (which has a faster convergence than FruchtermanReingold, but which often does not give so good results than this last one) 2) Computation of statistics based on nodes A) Vertex and edgeRead MoreHow Visualization Is Done By Two Primary Ways, By Hiring Third Party Specialists Or Using Visualization Tools1453 Words   |  6 PagesVisualization is the process/technique of creating images or charts to represent the data and to communicate the meaning of the data through it. Visualization is done by two primary ways, by hiring third party specialists or by using visualization tools. There are different dashboard products available in the market and the ideal software depends on the need of the project. There are different dashboards and they have their own merits and demerits. They need to be assessed and evaluated from theRead MoreTransnational Criminal Organization and the Law Enforcement Community1010 Words   |  5 Pagespossible through investigation of the evidence of the specific instance of crime. This is not the case with large criminal organizations. The scale of criminal activity committed by transnational criminal enterprises dwarfs thos e committed by lone â€Å"local† offenders. Organized criminal enterprises have a pattern of wide-scale criminal activity on a daily basis that involves the participation of many individuals. Transnational criminal organization are somewhat like the mythological nine-header Hydra

Friday, December 13, 2019

Isolation of Bacteria Free Essays

Different types of bacteria in various forms are found all around us, and it is a microbiologist’s job to be able to identify these bacteria. Using various staining techniques and physiological tests, an isolated bacterium can be identified. In this experiment, a single bacterial colony was isolated form Mycorrhizal spores, and further tests done on that colony. We will write a custom essay sample on Isolation of Bacteria or any similar topic only for you Order Now Sub culturing was done after each week to ensure that the bacterium has sufficient nutrients required for optimum growth that will last the duration of the entire experiment. A flow chart was created based on the results of the physiological tests in order to identify the isolated bacterium. After 4 weeks, the isolated bacterium was identified as XXXXX for reasons stated in the results and discussion. The main goal of this experiment was to identify the isolated bacterium that was obtained from Mycorrhizal spores. In order to identify the bacterium, the experiment was conducted in 4 parts: (a) isolation of an unknown bacterium from soil; (b) identification of the bacterium using various staining techniques; (c) determining the motility of the bacterium; and (d) determining the physiological characteristics of the bacterium. Part (a) of the experiment involves isolating a single bacterial colony from the culture. The remaining 3 parts will be conducted on that colony. In part (b), it is shown that various staining techniques test for different characteristics. As the name suggests, a gram stain is conducted to identify the bacteria as gram negative or gram positive. Two other stains were carried out. To determine the motility of the bacterium, wet mounts of the bacterium were observed and the motility was confirmed by using soft agar plates and soft agar deeps for part (c). The physiological characteristics were identified in part (d). Some of these tests include growth temperatures and salt tolerance, degradation of polysaccharides, proteins and lipids, oxygen requirements etc. Based on the results for the above, the unknown bacterium can be identified by comparing it to cultures in the Bergey’s manual. A flow chart can be drawn up to correctly identify the bacterium by using the physiological test results. How to cite Isolation of Bacteria, Essay examples

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Managing Organizations and Decision Making

Question: Discuss about the Managing Organizations and Decision Making. Answer: Introduction: Organizations from global business environment are continuously experiencing a significant amount of burdens to adopting an old or new management tools or techniques supporting them to get the most out of limited resources. The scenario is widely caused by the anticipated challenges throughout the global economy due to the environmental and organizational catastrophes, prolonged implications of corporate scandals, and persistent apprehensions over war and terrorism (Farrell 2000). Due to such consequences, the managers and executives of various companies are predominantly thinking about the useful concepts by learning key organizations from the international environment for undergoing and adapting changes to meet diverse requirements of increasingly chaotic world. Based on the importance of organizational learning for evolving approaches and policies of an enterprise, Tesco PLC from the retailing environment UK is selected for creating this essay comprising of principle arguments ref erenced from the suggestions put forwarded by relevant scholars and professionals. According to Farrell (2000), organizational learning and development help to improve the interpersonal skills of the managers while influencing on the entire productivity. The certain shift in focus drives the organizations to deliver more to the community while vibrantly building and sustaining the benchmarks associated with performance (Moloi 2005). The retail industry of UK is continuously facing volatile requirements from numerous factors involving the market due to the rise of technology, involvement of key competitors in the market, and need of coming up with a diverse range of products (Gould 2000). Due to such requirements, the internal organizational structure of Tesco is currently undergoing gigantic changes resulting from the announcement made by the CEO having a special interest in adopting a transformational leadership since his recruitment to the position. Rowley (2000) has explained that the performance of an enterprise will improve to an extended level if it positivel y forms interaction with the external environment. Lee, Benett, and Oakes (2000) agree with the identified viewpoint, as those are the reason causing change to be synonymous with the development of business. From the analysis of the overall change management system defined by Tesco, it can be observed that the associated factors are superior to trigger functional changes to the whole structure and making it a learning organization for the other managers (Lee, Bennett, and Oakes 2000). With reference to Moloi (2005), the change management factors of Tesco successfully identify some of the useful areas like economic uncertainties, globalisation and fierce competition, political interests, rapid improvement in information and technology, and the degree of government interventions. On the other hand, training and development process introduced within the company is responsible for providing energetic input to encourage corporate growth and success by uplifting the performance and commitments of workforce (Tagg 2003). Gould (2000) has specified training as the acquisition of knowledge and skills for elevating the prudence and capabilities of an individual for supporting the accomplishment of an allotted task. Therefore, training and development activities performed within the firm create or enhance ownership among the employees to help them acquire new skills and abilities boosting the formation of a well-organised, productive, and flexible workforce (Rowley 2000). From the analysis of Farrell (2000), the corporate image of Tesco is largely inspired by the confidence of its customers in the knowledge and competence of staffs and workers of the company. As a result, the business growth and achievement of Tesco continues to spark impressively in the retail environ ment of UK. Further analysis suggests that a flexible and structured approach is followed in the training and development area of Tesco supporting it to adapt the individual needs of employees (Moloi 2005). From the analysis carried out by Tagg (2003), the application of both on and off-job training, specialised, developmental, and options programme is responsible for developing a highly skilled workforce covering the vital fields, such as communications, team building, and planning and organising. Human resource management is another useful domain of the organization introducing a highly committed model for hiring the skilled and capable personnel while sustaining a culture with according to the needs of external environment (Gould 2000). From the example of Tesco, the company has implemented strategic human resource practices while not replacing the old personnel department from its internal setting. The business profit of Tesco soared 20% last year promoting the company to set a new milestone for various corporations in UK (Farrell 2000). The plundering success of the supermarket chain is considerably caused by its enormous employee base, which makes the firm becoming the largest private employer in the country. According to Lee, Bennett, and Oakes (2000), the human resource strategy of Tesco denotes simplification of work, rolling out core skills, and challenging the unwritten rules whilst the performance management is tied to achieving steering wheel targets. The particula r fact signifies that the different measures adopted by the human resource department are meticulously connected with the performance management of the business. From the overall investigation, it can be determined that leadership development, training and development, and human resource management are the three core departments of Tesco amongst the others to provide vital growth and cardinal direction to the business. The combination of productive measures embraced by these separate areas is domineeringly accountable to drive the company attaining key business aims from its identified market. Hence, it is justifiable that each area of the firm proves valuable learning opportunities to the other executives and managers to shape up their practical and managerial knowledge and understanding. Complicated patterns of globalisation, political environment, labour market trends, and internationalisations have created a mutual norm for the majority of organizations to develop an inter-cultural work (Ang and Inkpen 2008). The leading organizations of modern era require its managers and business to operate in multicultural, multilingual, and multi-faceted environments. Ang et al. (2007) have suggested that dealing with the inter-cultural differences has long been a challenging task for the managers and executives of a multinational corporation. Such scenario has provoked Early and Peterson (2004) to propose a model of cultural adaptation called as The Cultural Intelligence (CQ) by providing an increasing prominence to develop working relationship with multi-cultural business environment. This essay is formed with the intention of analysing the importance of cultural intelligence in the course of achieving organizational success in the contemporary world of business. From the context of organization and management, the dynamic spread of global economic communication and increasing exchanges in the marketplaces require the application of sophisticated competencies to deal with the individuals with their different values, assumptions, traditions, and opinions (Triandis 2006). Ng, Van Dyne, and Ang (2009) have defined competencies as the certain area of personal capability facilitating the employees and managers of an organization to perform their jobs and bring out positive outcomes. Numerous studies were formed by the authors over the years to describe competencies. A considerable number of authors have portrayed competencies as the collection of knowledge, self-concepts, attributes, values, and behavioural skills, where others categorised the concept as individual characteristics, which can be measured to distinguish the disparities between average and superior performers expressively (Ang et al. 2007). Over the years, companies face perennial is sues concerning competencies of a successful manager while the need for general competencies should be essentially included in the roles and behaviours of an entire workforce. This particular fact principally signifies the enclosure of unique cross-cultural competencies among the managers to shape up their skills and abilities for responding effectively to requirements of people from various culture, religion, or ethnic background (Ng, Van Dyne, and Ang 2009). Early and Peterson (2004) have notably indicated the necessity of cross-cultural integration and transformation knowledge to promote the achievement business success by the organizations, as the entire process would help to cultivate appropriate standards, policies, and attitudes fitting a specific cultural setting. The application of the propped factors certainly helps the business to enhance the quality of service to produce and deliver better outcomes for diverse cultural environment. Globalisation has caused the expansion of business leading the world to be considered as an integrated entity. Hence, the firms are naturally exposed to an increasing number of threats from the external cultural factors. As a result, leaders of the contemporary business should not only be equipped with a high level of IQ and EQ (referred to as emotional intelligence), but they should also possess robust cultural intelligence (CQ). It will facilitate them to elevate their skills and continue to achieve success in the global business community (Earley and Peterson 2004). Trandis (2006) has stated that the organizational leaders are responsible for defining the corporate vision and communicating the same to their subordinates and influencing them to achieve the goals. However, the certain process transforms into a daunting task for the leaders and managers beyond their native culture. Therefore, the leaders must need to adopt cultural intelligence, as it is the only unlocking the door o f knowledge and helping them to develop a new set of skills for attaining success (Ismail Al-Alawi et al. 2007). The particular statement symbolises the gathering of necessary understanding about the cultural attributes and expectations of followers or subordinates by the leaders or managers. Based on such understanding, the leaders or pioneers can build suitable relationships with the followers and develop fitting solutions for dealing with the anticipated problems to promote overall efficacy of the business operation. It can be proposed depending on the provided understanding that cultural intelligence form and enhance awareness among the managers and leaders throughout an entity to present successful outcomes to the business. Without the implications of cultural intelligence, leaders might face grave difficulties in adopting a healthy behaviour according to the characteristics of different circumstances without the need of compromising their inherent styles and qualities of leadership (Triandis 2006). With the help of a resilient awareness, leaders or managers can understand the comparison of idiosyncratic nature with collectivist culture of their followers. More clearly, they can able to determine whether they can work better in autocratic or bureaucratic environment. Lastly, culturally intelligent leaders can be able to understand the essence of communication manner associated with the achievement of success (Ismail Al-Alawi et al. 2007). Ang and Inkpen (2008) have imperatively outlined that managers or leaders find it precisely easy to tweak their current communication style once they develop awareness about the cultural attributes of their assistants or cohorts as part of the workforce. To summarise the overall understanding, it can be quantified that the organizational leaders and managers should need to work on improving their cross-cultural competencies, awareness, adaptation, and communication skills for becoming culturally intelligent. Regardless of their relationship-oriented or task-oriented leadership styles, organizational leaders should continuously devote on increasing cultural intelligence by emphasising on the mentioned factors, as identified throughout the essay. List of References Farrell, M.A., 2000. Developing a marketà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ oriented learning organisation. Australian journal of management,25(2), pp.201-222. Gould, N., 2000. Becoming a learning organisation: a social work example.Social Work Education,19(6), pp.585-596. Lee, G., Bennett, D. and Oakes, I., 2000. Technological and organisational change in small-to medium-sized manufacturing companies: a learning organisation perspective.International Journal of Operations Production Management,20(5), pp.549-572. Moloi, K.C., 2005.The school as a learning organisation: Reconceptualising school practices in South Africa. Van Schaik. Rowley, J., 2000. From learning organisation to knowledge entrepreneur.Journal of knowledge management,4(1), pp.7-15. Tagg, J., 2003.The learning paradigm college. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company. Ang, S. and Inkpen, A.C., 2008. Cultural intelligence and offshore outsourcing success: A framework of firmà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ level intercultural capability.Decision Sciences,39(3), pp.337-358. Ang, S., Van Dyne, L., Koh, C., Ng, K.Y., Templer, K.J., Tay, C. and Chandrasekar, N.A., 2007. Cultural intelligence: Its measurement and effects on cultural judgment and decision making, cultural adaptation and task performance.Management and organization review,3(3), pp.335-371. Earley, P.C. and Peterson, R.S., 2004. The elusive cultural chameleon: Cultural intelligence as a new approach to intercultural training for the global manager.Academy of Management Learning Education,3(1), pp.100-115. Ismail Al-Alawi, A., Yousif Al-Marzooqi, N. and Fraidoon Mohammed, Y., 2007. Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: critical success factors.Journal of knowledge management,11(2), pp.22-42. Ng, K.Y., Van Dyne, L. and Ang, S., 2009. From experience to experiential learning: Cultural intelligence as a learning capability for global leader development.Academy of Management Learning Education,8(4), pp.511-526. Triandis, H.C., 2006. Cultural intelligence in organizations.Group Organization Management,31(1), pp.20-26.