OR POST case studies
OR POST · Put your knowledge to work in context.
The OR POST is a professional certification examination in operations research. It is designed for analysts, engineers, data scientists, and graduate students who apply quantitative methods to decision problems in industry, government, or consulting. The exam tests a broad foundation across eight domains: model formulation, linear programming and duality, network and integer optimization, probability and queueing, decision and game theory, discrete-event simulation, nonlinear and dynamic programming, and applied modeling with professional ethics. Questions are multiple choice and emphasize both conceptual understanding and the ability to set up and interpret models, not just recall formulas. The OR POST case studies are 5 cases and about 3,438 words.
1Reactor Capacity, Shadow Prices, and a New Product
A specialty chemicals plant makes two products, A and B, on a shared reactor and purification train. Monthly capacity is 100 reactor-hours and 80 purification-hours.
661 words, about 3 min2Emergency Department Waiting-Time Target
A regional hospital's emergency department sees an average of 9 arrivals per hour, modeled as Poisson. Each of three physicians treats on average 4 patients per hour, with exponential service times.
671 words, about 3 min3Depot Location, Integrality Gap, and a Misread Bound
A distributor serves four customer zones with weekly demands 40, 35, 25, and 30 tonnes. Three candidate depots may be opened: X has fixed cost 900/week and capacity 80 tonnes; Y has fixed cost 700 and capacity 70; Z has fixed cost 1,100 and capacity 90.
807 words, about 4 min4Capacity Choice with Expected Utility and Information Value
A contract manufacturer must choose capacity for a new product line: small, medium, or large. Profits in thousands of dollars depend on demand.
614 words, about 3 min5Simulation Output Analysis and a Paired Design Comparison
A simulation study evaluates a proposed automated storage and retrieval system. One analyst runs a single 300-day replication and reports mean daily throughput 38.9 pallets, compared with a target of 40.
685 words, about 3 min