Abstract
In recent years, powerful mathematical modelling languages have enabled Operational Research practitioners to rapidly develop prototype tools capable of modelling complex managerial decisions such as staff shift scheduling, or production and supply chain planning. However, such tools have often required expensive commercial optimisation solvers that are sometimes beyond the financial reach of small companies and organisations, particularly in the low-income and emerging economies. Fortunately, the worldwide scope of the internet has put powerful free optimisation tools within the reach of anyone with a modest PC and even a slow internet connection. This article will present examples showing just how beneficial such an approach can be for resource-poor organisations.
Highlights
The application of Operational Research (OR) has the potential to radically enhance decision-making in organisations at the strategic, tactical and operational levels
Algebraic modelling languages for optimisation overcome many of the disadvantages of spreadsheets for OR
The rest of this paper focuses on AMPL
Summary
The application of Operational Research (OR) has the potential to radically enhance decision-making in organisations at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. Tends to be executives and managers in more developed economies rather than in low-income emerging economies or organisations that are poor in resources, for example, voluntary organisations. Brazil & Chile have well-developed Information and Computing Technology (ICT) sectors, a strong OR presence with specialist university researchers, sophisticated OR projects in agro-business and industry [Taube 1996, Weintraub et al 2000], and reasonable access to state-of-the-art OR software. The poorer emerging economies have less apparent demand for OR, a smaller OR presence with fewer university researchers, and correspondingly limited access to ICT. For such countries, specialist OR software is often too expensive to buy and there is usually little or no local technical support in the country. The question can be asked: are there less costly (or even free) software tools for OR that resource-poor practitioners can take advantage of? To a surprising extent, the answer turns out to be “Yes” - in the area of mathematical programming - as is revealed
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