GKN Operational Research Reports

The archive contains reports of the GKN South Wales Operational Research Unit, 1959-1967, and reports and memoranda from the British Steel Corporation, 1959-1976.

Guest, Keen & Company was established in 1900 from a merger of the Patent Nut and Bolt Company (founded in 1864; the Keen element) and the Dowlais Iron Company (founded in 1759; the Guest element). In 1902, Nettlefolds Ltd. (which had begun as the partnership of Nettlefold and Chamberlain in 1854) was also amalgamated to form Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds or GKN.

Reference: E. Jones 'A History of GKN: Innovation and Enterprise, 1759-1918' (Basingstoke, 1987); 'A History of GKN: The Growth of a Business, 1918-1945' (Basingstoke, 1990).

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/GKN

There are no restrictions on the use of this archive.

Professor J. Bryant made his selection on a thematic basis, concentrating on simulation and economic modelling, as material for case studies for his course at Sussex University.

This collection was deposited by Professor J. Bryant of the School of Computing and Management Studies, Sheffield Hallam University, in September 1994. He had been given the opportunity, c.1980, to select GKN Operational Research reports when the GKN East Moors Works, Cardiff was closed.

The Centre holds the following other collections relating to the history, development and practice of operational research and to pioneers and practitioners in this field (collectively known as the Operational Research Archive): British European Airways: Operational Research Branch (MSS.335/AI/1); British Overseas Airways Corporation: Operational Research Branch (MSS.335/AI/2); British Steel Operational Research papers and Memoranda (MSS.335/BS); the Papers of Professor Stephen Cook (MSS.335/CK); the Community Operational Research Unit (MSS.335/COR); the East Midlands Operational Research Group (MSS.335/EMORG); Papers of the Fellowship for Operational Research (MSS.335/FOR); papers for British Gas Operational Research (MSS.335/GA); British Gas North West Operational Research Reports (MSS.335/GA/NW); Fellowship for Operational Research (MSS.335/FOR); International Federation of Operational Research Societies (MSS.335/IFORS);Interviews with Operational Research Pioneers and Related Papers (MSS.335/INT); the Institute for Operational Research (MSS.335/IOR); the Local Government Operational Research Unit (MSS.335/LG); Miscellaneous and Fragmentary Operational Research Papers (MSS.335/MIS); Operational Analysis Branch, NATO (MSS.335/OAB); Draft Obituaries of Operational Research Practitioners (MSS.335/OBIT); the Papers of Jack Plymen (MSS.335/PLY); the Papers of Professor K. Brian Haley relating to Operational Research Quarterly (MSS.335/SO/H); the Papers of Rolphe C. Tomlinson (MSS.335/TOM); and the Papers of Dr Edward D. van Rest (MSS.335/VR).