ABSTRACT

Students with diverse backgrounds will face a multitude of decisions in a variety of engineering, scientific, industrial, and financial settings. They will need to know how to identify problems that the methods of operations research (OR) can solve, how to structure the problems into standard mathematical models, and finally how to apply or develop computational tools to solve the problems.

Perfect for any one-semester course in OR, Operations Research: A Practical Introduction answers all of these needs. In addition to providing a practical introduction and guide to using OR techniques, it includes a timely examination of innovative methods and practical issues related to the development and use of computer implementations. It provides a sound introduction to the mathematical models relevant to OR and illustrates the effective use of OR techniques with examples drawn from industrial, computing, engineering, and business applications.

Many students will take only one course in the techniques of Operations Research. Operations Research: A Practical Introduction offers them the greatest benefit from that course through a broad survey of the techniques and tools available for quantitative decision making. It will also encourage other students to pursue more advanced studies and provides you a concise, well-structured, vehicle for delivering the best possible overview of the discipline.

chapter 1|15 pages

Introduction to Operations Research

chapter 2|61 pages

Linear Programming

chapter 3|61 pages

Network Analysis

chapter 4|53 pages

Integer Programming

chapter 5|28 pages

Nonlinear Optimization

chapter 6|31 pages

Markov Processes

chapter 7|20 pages

Queuing Models

chapter 8|25 pages

Simulation

chapter 9|45 pages

Decision Analysis

chapter 10|27 pages

Heuristic Techniques for Optimization