Operational operations research at the Mathematical Centre

This reprint is dedicated to Cor Baayen on the occasion of his retirement as scientific director of CWI. It was written in 1982, when CWI and NWO were still Institute MC and ZWO. Just before, the Foundation MC had confirmed its national position by becoming the ‘Netherlands Foundation for Mathematics’. Shortly afterwards, the Institute MC changed its name to CWI and started to play a leading role in the national computer science stimulation program. These events, which are milestones in the history of the MC, were largely due to Baayen’s efforts. The paper was published before in the European Journal of Operational Research (Volume 15, 1984, pp. 293—296) and, in its original Dutch version, in Kwantitatieve Methoden in het Management, edited by C.B. Tilanus, O.B. de Gans and 1K. Lenstra (Het Spectrum, Utrecht, 1983, pp. 252—258). We are grateful to Elsevier Science Publishers By, for their permission to reprint it here. We have chosen to make only a few editorial changes, and hope that the paper reflects the spirit of the time of its first publication. This note deals with consultation in operations research at the Mathematical Centre in Amsterdam. After a short description of the activities of the MC, in particular of its Department of Operations Research and System Theory, three practical projects are described.