Operational Research
(O.R.) case studies
What’s the problem?
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You are a property developer…
You are renovating a houseThere are various tasks that this involvesWhich will each take a different time to complete
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Some tasks have to be finished before others can beginYou want to complete the renovation as quickly as possible
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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?
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What do we need to know?
What needs to be done?And how long do those activities take to do?
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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
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We also need to know which activities depend on each otherThen we are ready to consider how to manage the project
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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
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We want to plan the order of activities that will finish
the project in the shortest possible
time
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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)
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Over the next few lessons, we will look at ways of approaching problems of this type…
What next?
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