ABSTRACT
A major event in the calendar of the UK Operational Research Society is the annual Blackett Lecture given by a leading public figure. The text of the lecture is subsequently published in the Journal of the Operational Research Society. Blackett’s role in setting up the society and initiating the journal (originally called the Operational Research Quarterly) is thus remembered and he is celebrated as the founding father of operational research (OR). Blackett’s activities in seeding new OR groups in Britain’s war machine during the Second World War have been amply recorded.1 In the only paper in the first issue of the first volume of the Operational Research Quarterly, Blackett himself says: ‘The main outlines of the growth of operational research in the armed services during the second world war have been described in numerous articles and books and are certainly sufficiently well known not to need repetition here.’ He goes on to suggest that others knew more than he did about ‘the actual practical results attained since the war by application of these methods to the great task of increasing the efficiency of our social system and the well-being of our population’. He concludes: ‘Leaving aside, therefore, both its history and its present achievements, I wish to touch on some points relating to its methodology and its organisation.’2 In this chapter, taking the lead from Blackett himself, I will pass over his wartime achievements and concentrate on the evolution and development of the profession and discipline that arose out of his efforts and those of other pioneers of the time. Like Blackett, I will touch on some points relating to OR’s methodology and organisation. Unlike Blackett, I will also comment on some of the practical results.
