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Centre for Strategy, Technological Innovation, and Operations
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Operations Research in Practice

Organisations across all sectors operate within dynamic, interconnected, and uncertain systems. To remain competitive and resilient, they must develop strategies that are not only analytically sound but also practically implementable in everyday operations. This requires robust decision-support approaches that enhance data-driven decision-making, optimise resource allocation, improve responsiveness to uncertainty, and strengthen overall performance.

Operations Research (OR) offers a powerful toolkit for transforming complex challenges into actionable solutions. By combining methods such as optimisation, simulation, forecasting, decision analysis, and queuing theory with advanced data analytics, OR enables organisations to inform strategic, tactical, and operational decisions using real-world data. Crucially, OR also supports the evaluation of alternative scenarios, helping decision-makers assess trade-offs, mitigate risks, and anticipate the broader system-wide impacts of their choices.

As organisations invest in digital infrastructures and analytics capabilities, they are becoming more sophisticated users of OR. Beyond collecting and storing data, they seek to understand how to structure complex problems, build transparent and robust models, and translate analytical insights into effective action.

This research theme provides a platform for advancing and sharing knowledge on applied OR approaches that address real-world challenges. We focus on the practical design, implementation, and impact of decision-support models in complex systems, bridging analytical rigour with operational relevance.

Members

Associated research (selection)

  • Fei, Xin, Jürgen Branke, and Nalân Gülpınar (2025), "Dynamic pharmaceutical product portfolio management with flexible resource profiles," European Journal of Operational Research, 324 (1), 308–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2025.01.011
  • Aydın, Nurşen, Nalan Gülpınar, and Yijun Zheng (2024), "Dynamic capacity allotment planning for airlines via travel agencies," Computers & Operations Research, 170, 106740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cor.2024.106740
  • Gökalp, E., N. Gülpınar, and X. V. Doan (2023), "Dynamic surgery management under uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, 309 (2), 832–844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2022.12.006
  • Strauss, Arne, Nalan Gülpınar, and Yijun Zheng (2021), "Dynamic pricing of flexible time slots for attended home delivery," European Journal of Operational Research, 294 (3), 1022–1041. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.03.007
  • Pachamanova, Dessislava, Victor S. Y. Lo, and Nalan Gülpınar (2020), "Uncertainty representation and risk management for direct segmented marketing," Journal of Marketing Management, 36 (1-2), 149–175. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2019.1707265
  • Gökalp, Elvan, Nalan Gülpınar, and Xuan Vinh Doan (2020), "Capacity planning for networks of stem‐cell donation centers under uncertainty," Production and Operations Management, 29 (2), 281–297. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.13090