Search

This article focuses on the evolution of operations research (OR) in South America. Management Sciences (MS) in Argentina have a long history. The first operational research group, Alpargatas, the leading textile firm, was founded as far back as the late 1950s. In Bolivia, several individuals have tried to establish OR activities in some of the larger state-owned corporations. Despite the recent oil boom, Ecuador was in 1972 still a relatively poor one with a gross national product (GNP) per capita of less than 400 per year and the industrial structure of Ecuador has been insufficient for the development of operational research which is restricted mainly to the universities and as in the other countries in this category, there are reputed to be less than five OR specialists in the country. As a largely agricultural country, with an annual GNP per capita of approximately 240, Paraguay lacks a type of industrial base suitable for the intensive use of the more advanced management techniques. Despite a low per capita GNP and a lack of a broad industrial base of large companies, the OR picture in Peru appears reasonably healthy.

This article presents information on project SOAP that was the name given to the joint task group established under an interagency agreement between the Technical Analysis Division (TAD) of the National Bureau of Standards (NBS) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The first activities of Project SOAP were exploratory, aimed at providing an essential understanding of what was happening within the decision making system and describing how to develop useful data. Project SOAP'S attempt to apply systems analysis and operations research to management problems in the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases revealed that, although the need for planning, evaluation and analysis was clearly recognized by Institute administrators, specific relationships between costs and benefits were generally not well enough established to provide a firm basis for quantitative comparisons. The major limitation which impeded the quantitative analysis of this resource allocation problem was not due to methodology, but rather to the kind of substantive information available about the purposes and effects of particular projects and programs.

This article presents information related to the First Conference on Management Sciences, Computer Applications and Industrial Development that was held at the Nile Hilton, Cairo, Egypt, from July 3-6, 1972. The Conference was jointly sponsored by TIMS, the National Institute of Management Development, Egypt, and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Austria. The purpose of the conference was to give the participants an appreciation of the practical value of management sciences and other computer applications for industrial development. The conference drew some 300 attendees of which about 260 were from top and middle management representing Egypt and other African states. The remainder were from the U.S. and Europe. The conference objective was achieved to a large extent. A total of thirty-one papers were presented in these sessions. Conference proceedings will be published and TIMS members are advised to contact Mostafa El Agizy, in Armonk, New York 10504, to order copies.

This article presents information related to a new program in industrial engineering and management science at Los Andes. The Master's program in Industrial Engineering was started in 1968 as a consequence of the growing demand for industrial engineers specialized in the implementation of mathematical models and in the analysis of statistical problems. Initially the student body was composed of part-time students who worked during the day. At the present moment most of the students are full-time, and come from different fields such as mechanical, civil and electrical engineering, computer science, economics and mathematics. Some of them come from countries like Peru and Venezuela. The program requires each student to take linear programming, computer simulation, one advanced course in statistics, a business policy course, a Master's thesis and six electives in areas such as operations research, economics, finance, marketing, production and management. Research is being conducted mainly in operations research applications in the public sector.