Assignment Instructions

The operations research field is replete with applications that assist decision makers in conducting their daily business. We learned about modeling and we see that applied in just about all walks of life. Our studies of LP (linear programming) and IP (integer programming) addressed the use of scarce resources and how to use those best to achieve the maximum results. Our quick look at the decision support sciences also provided a good peek into the realm of decision making under various conditions of certainty or uncertainly and that is certainly useful in forecasting events in the future.

But those methods, techniques, and models are just the tip of the knowledge iceberg. There are a myriad of techniques that can be applied to develop a solution to a problem… or at least shed some light on how it could be solved. We only looked at a couple during the past six weeks. This week you will each conduct a short investigation of one of the other possible operations research techniques available.

At a minimum, these include:
• inventory models
• waiting lines and queuing models
• non–linear programming
• multiple objective optimization
• regression analysis
• discriminant analysis
• time series forecasting
• simulation
• network analysis
• project planning using CPM and PERT
• game theory
• dynamic programming
• finite Markov chains

Look at the list of possible choices and select one of them for your project. Conduct your research in the online library, on the open web, or at other facilities you may have available to you. Essentially, you will prepare a report about your investigation your report (500 words plus) is to be a written in a Microsoft Word document (APA). You are to also post a 250 plus word posting to brief your classmates on your research (*separate order)*. At the minimum you will tell the class about the technique, how it can be used, the assumptions involved, and the type problems that it can help decision makers resolve