1 Integrating Information Technology and Operational Research in the Management of Milk Collection Martin Butler 1 , Pat Herlihy 2 , Peter B. Keenan 1* 1 Department of Management Information Systems, UCD Business Schools, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. 2 UDS Software, Unit 2, Garville Drive, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Ireland. * Corresponding author: email Peter.Keenan@ucd.ie Tel +353 1 7164727 Fax +353 1 7164783 Abstract The Dairy industry is an important part of the food sector and milk collection is a challenging logistics problem that had long been of interest to operational researchers. Advances in information technology (IT) greatly facilitate data collection, manipulation and presentation and these advances facilitate the building of Decision Support Systems (DSS) to support logistics management in the milk collection sector. This paper discusses how a Geographic Information System (GIS) based DSS allows a scheduler interact with optimisation algorithms to plan milk collection routes. The paper goes on to discuss how such a DSS can be integrated with automatic data capture devices and database management systems to provide effective management of milk collection operations. Milk Collection Background to Milk Collection Transportation costs are always a significant component of total cost for a company where the movement of raw material or product is required. Major components of this cost include the labour cost of the drivers, the cost of fuel, and the cost of the trucks. These costs are especially important where perishable products are being transported and specialised handing