AWARENESS, APPRECIATION AND FAMILIARITY WITH OPERATIONS RESEARCH AMONG MANAGERS IN QUOTED MANUFACTURING FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Unconscious or informal application and failure to acknowledge the use of operations research (OR) approach by corporate managers has been going on globally for a very long time. This largely accounts for the inability of scholars to make accurate assessment of the level of application of operations research in the non-academic environment. It is therefore evident that asking an operations manager whether OR models or methodology is applied by his company may likely not produce a response that truly represents reality as some may be unknowingly making such applications. This study therefore examined the level of awareness of OR among corporations in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. It also assessed the extent of familiarity with OR models among managers in the manufacturing sector and their appreciation of OR techniques as a viable business decision-making tool. Consequently, steps that constitute the decision-making procedure of firms in the manufacturing industry of Nigerian economy were examined to determine the extent to which OR methodology or philosophy may have been incorporated.