FIRST MONTH: Get out your binoculars

• Identify problems and situations that need optimization.
• Find situations in your company where complicated decisions need to be made and data is available. These are potentially good opportunities to use O.R.
• Also look for cases where decisions are made routinely and repetitively, though it’s unclear whether those are the best decisions.

SECOND MONTH: Look for pockets of expertise

• Identify a team to attack a situation. This team often comprises a mix of subject specialists and O.R. specialists. The members can be internal, such as industrial engineers or technically trained MBAs, or outside consultants.
• Look for a variety of modeling approaches; beware of adopting this year’s hottest, new method without considering a variety of approaches.
• Understand your modeling assumptions. Key assumptions will be made to enable solutions. Explore those assumptions and why they are made.

THIRD MONTH: Challenge your assumptions

• Ensure the quality of the data. Is the team using recent data, and is it carefully cleansing the data? Are there alternative sources of data that can be cross-referenced?
• Fight against the model and results. How are the assumptions showing up in the results? Are the results believable? Can you check them?
• Work at implementation. Consider how business processes and systems need to be changed in order to put the results from the model into action in your business environment.