Laura Albert's non-technical introduction to operations research and analytics at the 2018 INFORMS Government & Analytics Summit

1. Operations Research & Analytics:
Saving Lives, Saving Money, Solving Problems
Laura Albert, Ph.D.
Chair, 2018 INFORMS Government & Analytics Summit
Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs, University of
Wisconsin-Madison
laura@engr.wisc.edu
@lauraalbertphd
http://punkrockOR.com

2. O.R. & ANALYTICS
We improve systems.
A system is a set of things –
people, troops, operating
rooms, trains, or whatever –
interconnected in such a way
that they produce their own
pattern of behavior over time.

3. O.R. IN WORLD WAR II
Anti-submarine warfare Bombing accuracy

4. POST-WAR

5. O.R. & ANALYTICS TODAY
Transportation
Healthcare
The shared economy
National security and
military logistics

6. SYSTEMS HAVE LIMITED RESOURCES
Queues / congestion
Limited resources/capacities
Time delays due to travel,
processing, or information
Uncertainty about what will
happen next

7. SYSTEMS HAVE INTERCONNECTED
PARTS
Increase performance
Use limited resources to
manage an inter-connected
system and improve
performance

8. HOW DOES DATA ANALYTICS FIT IN?
Data are just data
We want to turn data into
information for it to be useful
If we apply advanced analytics
to that information and data,
then we can make better decisions
and solve problems.
Source: bigdatapix.tumblr.com/

9. ANALYTICS
Data Insight Decision
What happened and
why?
Statistics / AI /
Machine Learning /
Data Mining / Data
visualization
What will happen?
Forecasting /
Simulation
What should we do?
Optimization /
Simulation
Prescriptive Analytics
Operations research
& analytics are
forward looking

10. EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
CONSIDER TRADEOFFS ACROSS PATIENTS
911 call
Ambulance
dispatched
Ambulance
arrives at
scene
Care
provided
at scene
Ambulance
leaves scene
Patient
transferred
at hospital
Send ambulance based on
uncertain triage information
Tradeoffs exist in real-time
decision-making between patients
at hand and patients that may arrive
Patient
triage
Ambulance unavailable for other patients
Goal: Faster
Response times!

11. O.R. & ANALYTICS TO THE RESCUE!
Design response districts for
ambulance response that
reduce response times
for most patients in the system
Decrease the average
response time
Case 2: First to send to high-priority calls
Station
1
2
3
4

12. UPS
Cost-effectively move packages around the
world from customer to service center
Help drivers deliver packages by
identifying the fastest routes with
delivery windows

13. AN INCREASINGLY COMPLEX AND
CONNECTED WORLD
Operations research and
analytics help us
study and design systems
to save money,
save lives, and
solve problems.