The two fields increasingly have much in common. Their broad shared goal is to facilitate improvements in operational processes, decision making and management by individuals and organizations. Their shared methods include the use of mathematics and computer-based systems to model these processes and decisions in order to develop, explore and evaluate alternative ways to handle them with a view to significant gains in efficiency and effectiveness. Particular techniques may draw on probability, statistics, simulation, queuing theory, formulations for optimizing allocation problems, the technology of neural networks and knowledge-based systems, as well as insights from game theory, psychology, and so on. Contributions have been made throughout industry, non-profit organizations, government and commercial businesses.
Applications can address one-time decisions or methods for running operations on a continuing basis.
They apply to health care, transportation, criminal justice, city planning, manufacturing, finance, marketing, the environment, agriculture, food processing, plant location, meteorology, water control, communications, and more. Full solutions in some cases may also require observing the implementation process and addressing changes dictated by unforeseen events. And a critical capability in setting scope is often that of flagging factors that can importantly influence the effectiveness of a system but which are outside the decision maker's control. May 16, 1995.