Literall y the word ‘operation’ may be defined as some action that we apply to some problems or hypothesis. The word ‘research’ is an organised process of seeking out facts about the same

C W Churchman defines OR as “Operations research is the aplication of scientific methods, techniques, and tools to problems involving the operation of a system so as to provide those in control of the system with optimum solution to the problem

The British/Europeans refer to "operational research", the Americans to "operations research" - but both are often shortened to just "OR"

Another term which is used for this field is "management science" ("MS"). The Americans sometimes combine the terms OR and MS together and say "OR/MS" or "ORMS". Yet other terms sometimes used are "industrial engineering" ("IE") and "decision science" ("DS"). In recent years there has been a move towards a standardisation upon a single term for the field, namely the term "OR".

OR is a relatively new discipline. Whereas 70 years ago it would have been possible to study mathematics, physics or engineering at university it would not have been possible to study OR, indeed the term OR did not exist then.

It was really only in the late 1930's that operational research began in a systematic fashion, and it started in the UK.

In times of national crisis, may be political, economical or cultural, the talents from all walks of life join together to overcome the situation and solve the problems. These combined efforts always result in new discoveries and techniques. Operations research is the outcome of such a situation.

Operations research came into existence when Fredric w Taylor in 1885 exphasised the application of scientific analysis to methods of production.

The name Operation Research came in use from a military context. During World War II, England undertook a programme known as Research in military operation’. Military management called on scientists from various disciplines and organised them into teams to assist in solving strategic and technical problems relating to defence of the country

. Their mission was to arrive at decisions on optimal utilisation of scarce military resources and to implement those decisions effectively. This new approach to the systematic and scientific study of the operations of the system was called Operations Research.

These early OR workers came from many different disciplines, one group consisted of a physicist, two physiologists, two mathematical physicists and a surveyor. What such people brought to their work were "scientifically trained" minds, used to querying assumptions, logic, exploring hypotheses, devising experiments, collecting data, analysing numbers, etc. Many too were of high intellectual calibre (at least four UK wartime OR personnel were later to win Nobel prizes when they returned to their peacetime disciplines).

By the end of the war OR was well established in the armed services both in the UK and in the USA.

Following the end of the war OR took a different course in the UK as opposed to in the USA. In the UK many of the distinguished OR workers returned to their original peacetime disciplines. As such OR did not spread particularly well, except for a few isolated industries (iron/steel and coal). In the USA OR spread to the universities so that systematic training in OR for future workers began.

In fact that many experts consider the start of Operational Research in the III century B.C., during the II Punic War, with analysis and solution that Arquimedes named for the defense of the city of Syracuse, besieged for Romans. Enter his inventions would find the catapult, and a system of mirrors that was setting to fire the enemy boats by focusing them with the Sun's rays.

Leornado DaVinci took part, in 1503, like engineer in the war against Prisa due to he knew techniques to accomplish bombardments, to construct ships, armored vehicles, cannons, catapults, and another warlike machines.

Thomas Edison made use of Operational Research, contributing in the antisubmarine war, with his greats ideas, like shields against torpedo for the ships.

Another antecedent of use of Operational Research obeys to F.W. Lanchester, who made a matematical study about the ballistic potency of opponents and he developed, from a system of equations differential, Lanchester's Square Law, with that can be available to determine the outcome of a military battle.

OR started just before World War II in Britain with the establishment of teams of scientists to study the strategic and tactical problems involved in military operations. The objective was to find the most effective utilisation of limited military resources by the use of quantitative techniques.

Following the end of the war OR spread, although it spread in different ways in the UK and USA.

You should be clear that the growth of OR since it began (and especially in the last 35 years) is, to a large extent, the result of the increasing power and widespread availability of computers. Most (though not all) OR involves carrying out a large number of numeric calculations. Without computers this would simply not be possible.