Industrial Applications of Combinatorial Optimization

Industries rely more and more on advanced technology. Accelerated computer evolution makes large-scale computation practical. Many enterprises are be­ ginning to benefit from more efficient allocation of resources and more effective planning, scheduling, manufacturing, and distribution by adopting state-of-the­ art decision support systems. Academics increasingly emphasize application­ driven research. All these forces have moved optimization from a pure class­ room and textbook terminology to an accepted tool in today''s business world. This book chronicles and describes applications of combinatorial optimization in industry. A wide range of applications is included: manpower planning • production planning • job sequencing and scheduling • manufacturing layout design • facility planning • vehicle scheduling and routing • retail seasonal planning • I! space shuttle scheduling, and telecommunication network design . • The applications covered in this book comprise a representative set of industry sectors including electronics, airlines, manufacturing, tobacco, retail, telecom­ munication, defense, and livestock. These examples should encourage opera­ tions researchers and applied mathematicians by pointing out how the impor­ tance and practicality of optimization is starting to be realized by the manage­ ment of various organizations and how some pioneering developments in this field are beginning to bear fruit.