Abstract
IN reply to a question asked in the House of Commons on January 19 on operational research in industry, the Lord President of the Council, Mr. Herbert Morrison, stated that it is the policy of the Government "to encourage all scientific activities which contribute to increasing the productivity and efficiency of industry. Operational research. . . is a term given in the recent war to the use of the scientific method for obtaining data on which executive decisions can be based. It has been employed by progressive firms in many industries for a number of years ; . . . there is certainly room for more of it. I have had a full report on its possibilities from a Panel of the Committee on Industrial Productivity. Several of the co-operative research associations, in particular the Cotton Research Association, the Iron and Steel Research Association and the Boot, Shoe and Allied Trades Research Association are doing well with it ; and with the general expansion of facilities since the War, other research associations are already carrying out, or are planning, similar work."Mr. Morrison added that the Departments concerned will extend every encouragement to firms anxious to develop operational research within their respective organisations.
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Operational Research in Industry. Nature 163, 315 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163315c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163315c0