Abstract Operation analysis is a relatively new concept, that is making rapid progress in its commercial applications. This paper provides a conceptual understanding of operations analysis. To enterprise managers, the term long range planning means selection among alternative courses of action for periods ranging between five to ten years from the date that the basic plans have been conceived. Planning includes the enterprise's objectives, policies, programs, strategies, procedures, and budgets. The manager invariably will find available to him alternative over-all enterprise plans with alternative functional plans. Accordingly, he must decide which plans to select within each of the enterprise functions-not examining them individually, but collectively-to determine if they are compatible with the over-all plans of the enterprise. Operations analysis then is an attempt to apply "scientific" methods to the problem of decision-making either in the short run or the long-run period. It provides a critical examination of the alternative courses of action available to the decision-maker, and assists him in selecting the "preferred" course of action. The author suggests that as the emphasis shifts more and more towards operations analysis in the commercial world, it will have a definite impact on the accountant. Hence it will require the accountant to re-orient his perspective by looking at the future rather than only at the past, to become familiar with the methodology of operations analysis so that he can become an effective member of the operations analysis team.
Eugene Ladin (Sun,) studied this question.