235 iiNiQup; 01 AN XI 1S1S decision

235 iiNiQup; 01 AN XI 1S1S
decisions are vital at many junctures. The man,1:4ci 0: Operation:. Re-search described the contributions of operations IVSC,11.C11 in this regard as follows: Of the many activities that the department engaged in, two of them had the greatest long-term impact on the company. They were the models and concepts that were developed for allocating logs and, second, the concept of using a business model to look at the business as a system whose logistics and marginal economics are an important factor in the commitment of long-term capital. Let me briefly illustrate examples of what was done in these two areas.
The Concept of an Area Model Our raw material business and major minufacturing facilities for primary products are concentrated in geographic locations called areas. The material flow and options in a typical area for raw materials are shown in Exhibit 8-2. This is a typical mathematical programming problem. Basi-cally, our area models are LPs (linear programs) which deal with the following kinds of information: Buy and sell opportunities for stumpage Log availability in the company Buy and sell opportunities for logs Buy and sell opportunities for chips Log transportation costs Product yields Production rate Production capacity Capacity cost When the model is solved, we get suggested plans for raw material sources, raw material disposal, production capacity plans, and product-line plans for the sawmills, plywood mills, and wood rooms (chips). The log allocation models were used by the business, al-though under great protest. The biggest problems were data in-accuracy and the handling of incredibly large volumes of infor-mation as we attempted to use these models for group of six to ten OR professionals and three to six inati and scientific programming professionals is likely to be most effective.
Movement of personnel from this group to other staff and operating roles should be encouraged where possible. Similarly over time, the salary structure and reward system should permit reentry of topnotch profes¬sionals who have been in other responsible jobs in the company and have the desire to be part of the professional group again. Such a policy in the department would be most cost effective for the company even though individual professionals would have high salaries.
In order to encourage breadth and total professional competence, salary policies should correspond to internal consultant scales, rather than to those of OR technicians.
Technique Development
In late 1971 the manager of Operations Research was reflecting on the appropriate balance of activities within the OR Department. A major issue was whether or not the company should continue its efforts in the more pure aspects of operations research technique development. Over the years it had devoted a part of its resources to this endeavor. How¬ever, alternative approaches had been considered, name!v, the use of outside consultants from time to time or waiting until the results of such efforts elsewhere were documented and published. According to the manager of OR most of the interesting projects were located in the operat¬ing groups. It was becoming more difficult to maintain interest in the "pure" research and technique development work which remained in the central OR department.
APPENDIX A
Weyerhaeuser
NEWS
Number 60 November 1965
OPERATIONS RESEARCH: LEVER FOR CHANGE
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the iead in introduction of a new order of things, because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.
Machiavelli: The Prince
1469-1527
Machiavelli was speaking of politics but he stated a great truth that