ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the long-range planning problem and discusses deterministic models and solution strategies. It describes models dealing with uncertainty and some recommendations for future research and concluding remarks. The chapter considers a plant comprising several processes to produce a set of chemicals for sale. Each process intakes a number of raw materials and produces a main product along with some by-products. The process planning problem then consists of choosing among the various alternatives in such way as to maximize profit. Uncertainty is an integral part of long-range planning. Many of the parameters of the long-range planning model may be uncertain. The chapter suggests that ways to deal with the parameter uncertainties more explicitly. There are two distinct philosophies regarding problems of this type: fuzzy programming and stochastic programming. The chapter explains an extension of the stochastic programming approach known as robust optimization.
