The Relationship Between Logistics And Operations Research

Relationship between logistics and operations research

During the two World War, operational experts made great achievements in solving a series of military problems such as Logistics and submarine tactics. Post-war operations research was taken seriously by some large US companies, and they applied operational research to enterprises.

Two, the main contents of operations research

Operations Research, also known as operational research, is a science that uses systematic methods to help achieve the best decision by establishing mathematical models and tests.

It mainly deals with the problems of application, planning and management, which can be expressed in quantity in economic activities and military activities.

According to the requirements of the problem, it makes comprehensive and reasonable arrangements through mathematical analysis and operation, so as to achieve more economical and effective use of resources such as manpower, material resources and financial resources.

The main branches of operational research include planning theory, game theory, queuing theory, network planning (i.e. co-ordination method) and quality control. Many books also use predictive technology as a branch of operational research.

(1) planning theory

It mainly studies the arrangement and estimation of project management.

Generally speaking, it can be summed up as the problem of finding the best plan according to a certain measure to meet the established requirements.

If the mathematical expression of objective function and constraint condition is linear, it is called "linear planning"; otherwise, it is called "non-linear planning".

If the planning problem considered can be divided into several stages, it is called "dynamic programming".

A typical example of the application of planning theory, such as the "pportation problem", pfers certain materials from quantity and unit price to the consumption station from the supply station. It requires that the flow and flow direction should be set at the same time of supply and marketing balance, so that the total pport cost will be minimal.

China has used linear planning to carry out rational pportation of cement, grain and steel, and achieved good economic benefits.

The use of planning theory can also solve the problems of "reasonable location", "vehicle scheduling", "loading of goods", "assignment of logistics resources (personnel or equipment)" and "investment allocation".

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(2) queuing theory

The congestion phenomenon with randomness is mainly studied.

All of these problems can be described vividly as a request for reception services before customers come to the service desk.

If the service desk is occupied by other customers, then we have to wait and queue up.

On the other hand, the service desk is sometimes free and busy.

One of the main contents of queuing theory is to study the probability distribution of waiting time, queue length and so on.

According to the condition that the service desk is one or more stations, the queuing problem is divided into single channel or multi-channel queuing problems.

Queuing theory is widely applied in the logistics process, such as the design of airport runway and the number of airport facilities. How can we ensure the use of the landing and the airport resources, and how to meet the loading and unloading requirements of the terminals and not to waste port resources, such as the berth design and loading and unloading equipment of the terminals, and not wasting the port resources? For example, the number of warehouses employed by the warehouses and the number of logistics machinery maintenance personnel, how to ensure the normal operation of warehousing and warehousing and logistics machinery without wasting human resources can be solved by queuing theory.

(3) quality control

Methods and practice of controlling various problems of product and service quality are studied by means of mathematical statistics.

The test result of a quality parameter always fluctuates within a certain range, that is to say, there are errors in the measurement results.

If it is a random error, it obeys a certain probability distribution. According to the principle of mathematical statistics, the test data may fall within a certain range.

Quality control is the use of mathematical statistics to determine the upper and lower limits of quality control. If the quality test data is within the scope of quality control, it is considered that the system is running normally. Otherwise, it is considered that the operation of the system is not normal and should be adjusted.

Quality control technology is often applied in logistics management.

For example, the distribution center has certain specifications and quality requirements in accordance with the requirements of customers, and sampling inspection, control and so on.

(4) game theory

In the first place, we use mathematical methods to study whether the two sides have the best strategy to win their opponent in competitive activities, and how to find out these strategies.

In these problems, we should describe the profits and losses of both sides and find out the best strategies for both sides.

The development of game theory takes into account the competitive activities of many parties. In these activities, competition strategies can be determined through repeated decisions of participants.

As the saying goes, "shopping malls are like battlefields", in the market economy, the logistics industry is also full of competition.

Game theory is a quantitative analysis method that can help us find the best competitive strategies to defeat our competitors or reduce losses.

For example, there are two distribution centers operating in the same business in a city. In order to fight for market share, both sides have multiple strategies to choose from. They can use the game theory to analyze and find the best strategy.

For example, in a certain area, automobile pportation companies compete with the railway system for tourists. There are various strategies to choose from, which can also be used to study the competition plan and so on.

Three. Research and application of operational research in China

Operations research as a scientific concept was raised in the middle of twentieth Century, and operational research thought can be traced back to a long time ago.

In ancient China, people with ability and ability have guided the practice of operational research, and some cases still have reference.

For example:

Song Zhenzong's big and middle Xiang Fu years, big inside fire, overnight, a large number of Palace balcony, Pavilion Pavilion Pavilion turned into ruins.

In order to repair these palaces, Song Zhenzong selected the well thought Jin Guo Gong Ding to be responsible.

At that time, to complete this major construction project, we need to solve a series of related problems: first, it is difficult to get the soil, because it is too far to get to the suburbs; two, it is difficult to solve the problem of material pportation related to this problem, which is not only the pportation of soil, but also the pportation of large quantities of other materials; three, the disposal of large scale ruins.

Ding said that the plan for the operation and development has made brilliant plans for construction.

First, ordered the "dig the thoroughfare and take the earth", and excavated several large trenches from the construction site, and the excavated soil was used as the construction soil.

As a result, the problem of land acquisition was settled far away.

The second step is to introduce the extrauterine Bian River into the newly excavated ditches, and "guide bamboo raft raft and ship miscellaneous materials, and enter the palace gate from the chasm."

In this way, a large number of timber and stone pportation problems have been solved.

After the completion of construction and pportation tasks, we will remove the cut water and pour all the rubbish into the ditch to fill the ground again.

Simply sum up, this is the process of digging trenches (taking soil) - diverting water into trenches (Transportation) - filling trenches (dealing with garbage).

This plan not only achieved the effect of "one action and three services", but also saved hundreds of millions of expenditures, and greatly shortened the construction period.

Designed by Ding Wei

Tian Ji racing: at the beginning of the Warring States period, king of Qi asked the minister Tian Ji and his horse racing to stipulate that each person would choose one horse from his own horse (horse race), middle horse and dismount, and said that every loss of a horse would have to pay one thousand and two hundred silver for the winner.

At that time, the horse of king Qi was more than Ma Qiang of Tian Ji, and Tian Ji seemed to lose three thousand and two hundred dollars.

But Tian Ji's counsellors gave advice to Tian Ji: they were not equal to the king of Qi, but they were stronger than the king of Qi. Therefore, they used horse racing to compete with Qi Wang in the middle horse race.

As a result, Tian Ji won one thousand and two hundred silver coins.

Tian Ji's strategy is the strategy of game theory in operational research.

Hou Shuxian harness water: during the period of Song Shenzong Xi Ning, Suiyang (now Shangqiu, Henan) excavated the embankment in the middle of the border to open up water and silt up the fields. Unexpectedly, the water rose rapidly and the embankment collapsed.

At this very urgent moment, Hou Shuxian, who was the official residence of Shui Cheng, came to the scene.

He knew that there was an ancient city in the upper reaches of tens of thousands of people. He immediately ordered the river to be dug up and the water was introduced into the ancient city.

As a result, the downstream water potential is greatly reduced, so that the danger can be alleviated, thus gaining time to repair the river embankment.

On the second day, when the ancient city of the upper reaches of the river was full of water, the river banks had been repaired when the water was flowing downstream.

This best plan saved tens of millions of lives and property.

From the above cases, we can see that operational research thought has a good foundation in China.

Although the concept of operational research originated in Europe and America, China is not backward in disciplinary research.

In the late 1950s, Hua Luogeng, a famous mathematician and other older scientists, made outstanding contributions to the development and application of operational research.

In 60s, they personally guided young scientists and technicians to promote the application of operational research methods throughout the country. Hua Luogeng's "preferred method" and "overall planning method" were adopted by various departments, and achieved good results, and were well received by the central leadership.

They have also compiled readable popular books for managers to enable more people to learn and apply operational research methods.

Since the reform and opening up, the application of operations research is more common, especially in the field of circulation.

For example, the use of linear programming for the rational pportation of grain and steel, reasonable pportation of Guangdong cement and so on; many enterprises' operation allocation, process arrangement, site selection and so on, also used the methods of operational research, and achieved remarkable results.

At the same time, it has created simple and easy "map operation method" and "table work method".

Now, logistics is vigorously developing and applying logistics information system. Many enterprises integrate operations research into management information system, increase the auxiliary decision-making function, achieve obvious economic benefits, and improve the management level of enterprises.

We believe that the combination of operations research and information technology and wide application in logistics management will surely increase our logistics management to a new higher level.