In this paper the reader will find a descriptive research, which aims to identify the reasons why people don't use operations research models in the production and inventory management. A case study is conducted in the Brazilian Pharmaceutical Industry by means of personal interviews with the operations managers of some sampled multinational companies. The results of the field research and the literature review show that both the complexity and the lack of experience with the operations research approach prevent the development and use of decision support systems based on more sophisticated models. Finally, in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice in the production and inventory management field, the authors suggest several actions in the following key areas: i) the professional education; ii) the partnership between academics and the IT companies; iii) the academic research in the field of production and inventory management.
Operations research; production planning; MRP; theory and practice
