Define the terms management science and operations research.

List and discuss the steps of the decision$-$making process.

Discuss the different roles played by the qualitative and quantitative approaches to managerial decision making. Why is it important for a manager or decision maker to have a good understanding of both of these approaches to decision making?

A firm just completed a new plant that will produce more than $500$ different products, using more than $50$ different production lines and machines. The production scheduling decisions are critical in that sales will be lost if customer demands are not met on time. If no individual in the firm has experience with this production operation and if new production schedules must be generated each week, why should the firm consider a quantitative approach to the production scheduling problem?

What are the advantages of analyzing and experimenting with a model as opposed to a real object or situation?