Search in Operational Research

Search is a quest to uncover or demystify something hidden, missing or unknown. It is the aspect of operation research that is concerned with uncovering, detecting or unveiling an unknown so that solution can be found for the identified problem.

The qualitative application of mathematical model to search problems so as to provide optimal solution to them is known as search model. 

The theory of searching for lost, missing, hidden and even evasive objects started in 1939 and has been a subject of serious scientific research for more than fifty (50) years. Search was the most important type of military operation as a matter of fact. During World War II searches were conducted to locate the enemy, to locate and recover one’s own lost or missing personnel and one’s allies. 

Relevance of Search

i.                    Search helps business to identify the various needs of the consumers before Production.

ii.                 Its aids the quest for knowledge on a particular discipline

iii.               It was useful during the World War II until today to develop a winning battle strategy and looking for missing soldiers.

iv.               It is used to search for the causes of ailments e.g. blood test, ultra sound sans etc.

Types of search method

Three point interval search:  The three point equal interval method partitions a closed and bounded interval into four closed subintervals with disjoint interiors and evaluates the function at each endpoint of the subintervals.

Fibonacci Search: the Fibonacci search technique is a method of searching a sorted array using a divide and conquer algorithm that narrows down possible locations with the aid of Fibonacci numbers. Compared to binary search, Fibonacci search examines locations whose addresses have lower dispersion.

Golden Mean Search: The golden section search is a technique for finding the extremum (minimum or maximum) of a strictly unimodal function by successively narrowing the range of values inside which the extremum is known to exist.

Three test strategies are applied to a search problem in order to minimize or reduce search effort, time and the cost of conducting search.

        i.            Perfect detection model

     ii.            Imperfect detection model

   iii.            Quality control model

Search can be applied to different human endeavors in these modern days and its relevance’s and importance that cannot be over emphasized. These human endeavours include:  operational research and management science. Some of the field that have considerably overlap with operational research and management science include: Business Analytic, Data mining, decision analysis, engineering, financial engineering, forecasting, game theory, industrial engineering, logistics, mathematical model using, mathematical optimization, probability and statistics, project management, policy analysis, simulation, social network/transportation forecasting models, stochastic processes and supply chain management.