The SAQ (IN FRENCH, SOCIÉTÉ DES ALCOOLS DU QUÉBEC) is a public corporation of the province of Quebec responsible for distributing and selling alcohol-based products in its territory through a large network of more than 400 stores and warehouses. The SAQ operates different types of stores: some stores offer a large selection of products (for instance, those located in densely populated areas), while others have a limited selection (for example, those located near restaurants where customers can bring their own wine). The stores have various hours of operation depending on the day, but also on their type and location. They open between 9:30 a.m. and noon, and close between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. The warehouses operate overnight.
Volume 32, Number 2, April 2005
FEATURE ARTICLES
DIGITAL EDITION
DEPARTMENTS 
Inside Story
Reflections on Global O.R.
What do liquor stores and folk festivals have in common besides a bunch of customers looking for a good time? If you said complicated personnel scheduling problems, you’re either an operations researcher, a Canadian or both.
President's Desk
Practice Makes Perfect O.R.
Practice makes perfect! It’s a well known phrase. In my mind, practice makes the perfect operations researcher! By practice, I mean working on real problems. That does not mean doing routine consulting work. It does not mean using textbook solutions to well-known problems. Working on real problems, as the founders of O.R. did during World War II, can result in substantial new theoretical contributions. And it can lead to a significant improvement in the operations being studied.
Issues in Education
Where is the “P” in OR/MS?
Operations research and management science modules are rarely the most exciting or popular modules in the business school curriculum. This seems to be the case in the United States and elsewhere around the world. Why?
INFORMS in the News
Patent/Copyright World Tour 2005
When last we left the European Parliament (my column of August 2004), it was poised to vote on a resolution relating to the patenting of software in the European Union. It appears that that vote was only the beginning of a long and labyrinthine path. Although the history is rather involved, the result was that in February the EP rejected the patent legislation containing language approving “computer-implemented inventions” and sent it back to the committee for reworking.
Was It Something I Said
‘Success’ Often Eludes Project Managers
April 2005? Guess it’s time to talk about project management again. This seems to have become an odd but dependable biennial tradition. The latest: I now teach an MBA elective course in project management. For regular readers of this column, this must seem absolutely hilarious. The irony is certainly not lost on me.
Cyberspace
Journal Rankings: U.K. Perspective
Every six years or so United Kingdom universities take stock of their research publications in quality journals in response to the U.K. government-led “research assessment exercise” (RAE, www.rae.ac.uk). Universities submit the publication record of each discipline in the hope of getting a rating for each that eventually determines government money and bragging rights. While all this may sound strange to non-U.K. readers, preparing for this at my school involves journal rankings that might interest all.
ORacle
The Congressman’s Parable
The O.R. analyst had finally surmounted his most recent technical challenge, but it hadn’t been easy. “You wouldn’t believe it, Carol. I had to go over and over the data and keep going back through the system,” he grumbled.“I finally did see where the model was missing a couple of key points, basically one wrong assumption from the start, and then it worked. But you’d think – or at least my boss thinks – that I should be more efficient at developing models by now.”