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Operational research within the National Coal Board

The Operational Research Executive of the N.C.B. was first established with one appointment in 1948 and has steadily grown, both in the size of the group - now over 100 scientists strong - and in the range of the work undertaken. One essential feature of its success is the organization of the group as a federation of small teams, each of which works on a continuing basis with a corresponding management team. Equally important is the formal check-back system which analyses the group’s overall achievements each year. Three major studies are described. The first traces the development of a suite of corporate planning models as part of the work of the team providing aids and advice to planners at headquarters. The second describes an ‘old fashioned’ piece of O.R. - the assessment of the future potentialities of the underground gasification of coal. The third discusses a year’s achievements of the team serving one Goal Board area. It is the N.C.B. experience that a scientific service of this kind, dedicated to the Board’s service, but independent of departmental pressures within it, is an invaluable aid to management decision making.