AMEV and ORTEC Consultants

The case is one in a series of seven cases on the practice of operational research. It describes the process of carrying out a project for a client (as opposed to the tools and techniques used as is customary for OR cases). A subset of the seven cases will give students a good feel for the intricacies of being an OR consultant/professional.

Teaching materials in Operational Research typically concentrate on tools and techniques for optimization assuming the problem is given and well-defined. This case (and its six little brothers) provides a rich view on how a practitioner actually goes about acquiring projects, framing the problem, building a relation with the client, constructing a solution and finally implementing it. In short, the cases allow the students to get a feel for the process (context) rather than the context (techniques).