Operational Research (O.R.) case studies

Operational Research

(O.R.) case studies

What’s the problem?

www.LearnAboutOR.com


You are a property developer…

You are renovating a houseThere are various tasks that this involvesWhich will each take a different time to complete


Some tasks have to be finished before others can beginYou want to complete the renovation as quickly as possible


Is it possible to complete the project before your deadline?In what order should you do the activities to complete the project as early as possible?And how many workers will you need and how will you assign them activities?


What do we need to know?

What needs to be done?And how long do those activities take to do?


Something like this…Activity Time needed to complete

Substantial repairs to the roof 8 days

Internal structural work 4 daysElectrical work 7 days

Plumbing 6 daysInstalling a new kitchen 3 days

Installing a new bathroom 4 daysGarden 5 days

Plastering 4 daysInternal decoration 5 days

Fitting carpets 1 dayOutside paintwork 5 days


We also need to know which activities depend on each otherThen we are ready to consider how to manage the project


Let’s summarise the problem

We need to plan a project involving several activities of different lengthsSome of these activities depend on the completion of others


We want to plan the order of activities that will finish

the project in the shortest possible

time


This is an example of Critical Path

Analysis

Other examples where this might be used

Businesses, hospitals, schools (in fact anywhere where complex projects take place)


Over the next few lessons, we will look at ways of approaching problems of this type…

What next?


Documents

Operational Research (O.R.) case studies