Operations research

Operations research (OR) is the scientific study of logistics. Sometimes it's called management science instead.

Operations research uses math to find the best ways to do things efficiently. Because of this, the field is very closely related to industrial engineering. Operations research usually involves finding the cheapest way to make things. OR was originally developed by the military in World War II to help get weapons to troops faster. It is now used in lots of other fields. OR has even been applied to speed up waiting in lines at theme parks; this application is called queuing theory.