La aplicación de las matemáticas a los problemas de administración y organización: antecedentes históricos

Modelling and analysis of operations management and organization is a distinctive branch of 20th century applied mathematics. Several mathematical techniques are available, and the applications space from industry to the military, and administration. The origins of this branch is usually linked to the development of operations research around IIWW. Nevertheless, the first attempts at applying mathematics to operations problems date back to the XVIII-XIXth centuries, and efforts in this direction – often isolated and not systematic – went on since then. The problems considered were those raised by the organization responsibilities of technicians and engineers as well as managers and administrators, typical of the processes of modernization. Early attempts regarded military problems as well as those involved in the development of production and transportation systems in the industrialized word. Motivation and obstacles in the mathematical approach in this context are similar to those present in other essays of applying mathematics to non-physical phenomena.