Operational research development in a newly industrialised country : A study of the current status and diffusion of O.R. in the United Arab Emirates with an O.R. approach to strategic planning

This thesis is concerned with the evaluation of the current status of Operational Research practice, training and education and the diffusion of O.R. in a newly industrialised and developing country, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). The purpose of such evaluation is to explore the level of O.R. awareness, to discover the extent of acceptance and implementation of O.R. techniques and the adequacy of training and education in O.R. Further it attempts to identify the barriers to the wide adoption of O.R./M.S. techniques in the industrial and business organisations and companies in particular, and to determine the basic requirements for O.R. development. In the course of this exploration new information is revealed regarding the U.A.E. industrial and business organisations in relation to O.R. awareness, usage, and willingness of personnel to use O.R., as well as strategies of training in O.R., barriers to its wide acceptance and characteristics of O.R. suitable for decision makers' needs and the environment in the U.A.E. As a means of demonstrating the advantages and values of O.R. techniques, the U.A.E. cement industry is taken as a case study. The aim of this case study is not to produce the best solution to the problem of the cement industry, rather it produces one possible way of approaching this problem, and to demonstrate the application of some O.R. techniques (e.g. scenario analysis, statistical analysis, multi-attribute decision model, and cost-benefit analysis.) on a macro-level in the hope that such application might motivate the wide use of O.R. in the future. Two research techniques were adopted in this research. The first one is the survey method where personally administered questionnaires were used, and the second one is the case study method. The thesis concluded that the level of O.R. awareness and usage in the TJ.A.E. industrial and business organisations in particular is very low, that O.R. education and training are inadequate, that many problems serve as barriers to the wide adoption of O.R. in the industrial and business organisations in the U.A.E., and that some basic requirements have to be met so that O.R. can develop further. It is also concluded that the most feasible solution to the problem of the U.A.E. cement industry is to cut the current level of capacity by 50 percent and suggested one possible way of implementing this solution. In carrying out this research, some problems were encountered due to a lack of statistical a and micro and macro data, insufficient materials and the like.