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MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
CONTENTS
Management Science .............................................................................................................................................................. 1
Techniques ............................................................................................................................................................................ 1
Applications of management science ......................................................................................................................... 2
Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................. 3
In 1967 Stafford Beer characterized the field of management science as "the business use of
operations research". However, in modern times the term management science may also be used to
refer to the separate fields of organizational studies or corporate strategy.[citation needed] Like
operational research itself, management science (MS) is an interdisciplinary branch of applied
mathematics devoted to optimal decision planning, with strong links with economics, business,
engineering, and other sciences. It uses various
Management Science stemmed from the
scientific research-based principles, strategies, and
areas of Operations Research, a
analytical methods including mathematical modeling,
discipline that deals with the
statistics and numerical algorithms to improve an
application of advanced analytical
organization's ability to enact rational and meaningful
methods to help make better decisions.
management decisions by arriving at optimal or near
It was used by Britain in World War II!
optimal solutions to complex decision problems. In
short, management sciences help businesses to
achieve their goals using the scientific methods of operational research.
The management scientist's mandate is to use rational, systematic, science-based techniques to
inform and improve decisions of all kinds. Of course, the techniques of management science are not
restricted to business applications but may be applied to military, medical, public administration,
charitable groups, political groups or community groups.
TECHNIQUES
Some of the fields that have considerable overlap with Management Science include:
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Data mining
Decision analysis
Engineering
Forecasting
Game theory
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Industrial engineering
Logistics
Mathematical modeling
Mathematical optimization
Probability and statistics
Project management
Simulation
Social network/Transportation forecasting models
Supply chain management
Financial engineering
Business Analytics
APPLICATIONS OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Applications of management science are abundant in industry as airlines, manufacturing companies,
service organizations, military branches, and in government. The range of problems and issues to
which management science has contributed insights and solutions is vast. It includes:
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scheduling airlines, including both planes and crew,
deciding the appropriate place to site new
facilities such as a warehouse, factory or fire
station,
managing the flow of water from reservoirs,
identifying possible future development
paths for parts of the telecommunications
industry,
establishing the information needs &
appropriate systems to supply them within
the health service
identifying and understanding the strategies
adopted by companies for their information systems
Management science is concerned with developing and applying models and concepts that may prove
useful in helping to illuminate management issues and solve managerial problems, as well as designing
and developing new and better models of organizational excellence. It is also concerned with so-called
”soft-operational analysis”, which concerns methods for strategic planning, strategic decision support,
and Problem Structuring Methods (PSM).
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wikipedia. Operations Research. 16th August 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operations_research. 12th October 2012>.