NCJ Number
68501
Date Published
1978
Length
620 pages
Annotation
THIS TEXT PROVIDES A SURVEY OF THE MAJOR QUANTITATIVE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES USED BY OPERATIONS RESEARCHERS; IT IS AN INTRODUCTION TO MORE ADVANCED STUDY, EITHER PRACTICAL OR THEORETICAL.
Abstract
MATHEMATICAL PREREQUISITES ARE KEPT TO A MINIMUM FOR THIS TEXT. HOWEVER, IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE READER HAS BEEN EXPOSED TO THE MATERIAL TAUGHT IN ELEMENTARY COLLEGE ALGEBRA, DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS, AND INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS COURSES. ALTHOUGH THE MATHEMATICAL SOPHISTICATION OF THE TEXT IS NOT DEMANDING, THE LOGIC USED IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH REQUIRES A FACILITY TO THINK QUANTITATIVELY. THE TEXT IS SUITED FOR INTRODUCTORY AND INTERMEDIATE COURSES IN OPERATIONS RESEARCH AT A JUNIOR, SENIOR, OR FIRST-YEAR GRADUATE LEVEL. CHAPTERS DISCUSS THE METHODOLOGY OF OPERATIONS RESEARCH, LINEAR PROGRAMMING, THE SIMPLEX METHOD, DUALITY AND POSTOPTIMAL ANALYSIS, NETWORKS AND THE TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM, AND PROJECT PLANNING AND SCHEDULING TECHNIQUES. ALSO DISCUSSED ARE DYNAMIC PROGRAMMING, MARKOV CHAINS, THE MARKOVIAN DECISION PROCESSES, WAITING LINE MODELS, CLASSICAL OPTIMIZATION METHODS WITH APPLICATION TO INVENTORY CONTROL, AND INTEGER PROGRAMMING. NONSIMPLEX BASED NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING, SIMPLEX BASED NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES, SIMULATION, AND HEURISTIC PROBLEM SOLVING ARE SUBJECTS OF THE CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. FOR THE MOST PART, THE CHAPTERS ARE SELF-SUFFICIENT IN THE SENSE THAT THEY DO NOT RELY ON THE MATERIAL COVERED IN EARLIER CHAPTERS. ALL CHAPTERS INCLUDE EXERCISES AND REFERENCES. APPENDED ARE AN INTRODUCTION TO VECTORS AND SIMULTANEOUS EQUATIONS, A MATRIX ALGEBRA APPROACH TO LINEAR PROGRAMMING, AND ELEMENTS OF PROBABILITY. A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 35 ITEMS AND A SUBJECT INDEX ARE PROVIDED.