ABSTRACT
This short chapter is intended to give you a brief glimpse how the knowledge and methods that are the subjects of this book are developed. A number of inventions were very influential in this development. Most of these were not intended to directly influence planning and scheduling. Many people, both well known and unknown contributed both small and large steps in the development. And some changes have become obsolete since they were first introduced. Because this book is about the mathematical and software side of producing products and services, we do not concern ourselves with many important topics such automation, robotics, the development of sequential production lines or manufacturing cells.
