The operations research analyst has a wide variety of methods available for problem solving. For mathematical programming models there are optimization techniques appropriate for almost every type of problem, although some problems may be difficult to solve. For models that incorporate statistical variability there are methods such as probability analysis and simulation that estimate statistics for output parameters. In most cases the methods are implemented in computer programs. It is important that at least some member of an OR study team be aware of the tools available and be knowledgeable concerning their capabilities and limitations.

In this section we include a number of topics that relate to the methods of operations research. The contents of this section are arranged by problem type. This Methods section includes the documentation for the teaching add-ins.

Central to our discussion of OR Methods is the Teach OR collection of Excel add-ins. These add-ins concentrate on the Mathematical Programming algorithms. This page links to complete instructions for each add-in.

• Primal Simplex Demonstrations are implemented using Flash to illustrate basic concepts of the primal simplex technique.
• The Teach Linear Programming Add-in implements three different algorithms for solving linear programming models.

• The Teach Network Add-in implements the network primal simplex method for both pure and generalized minimum cost flow problems.
• A graphical demonstration using Flash illustrates and contrasts algorithms for finding the minimal spanning tree and shortest path tree.
• The Transportation primal simplex method is implemented in the Teach Transportation Add-in.
• A graphical demonstration using Flash illustrates the network primal simplex method.