The field of operations research emerged from the analysis and solution of urgent military problems during World War II. With the end of the war and the consolidation of newly developed optimization and stochastic models into a recognized body of knowledge, the field became known for applications in business, management, and industry, especially regarding manufacturing and production management, transportation, and services. Yet the publicly spirited origins of operations research never left us, and even a brief review of the history of the field surfaces many books and articles devoted to problems of the public sector.
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