Operations Research

It should be emphasized that this book is an introduction. It is not intended to be a reference work for experienced practitioners. An effort has been made to simplify the technical material without distorting it.A high degree of mathematical maturity is not required. Parts I, II, III, and X require only elementary training in mathematics. Some of the material in Parts IV-IX will require a higher degree of mathematical sophistication, in particular a knowledge of elementary calculus. The material initially prepared has been revised in an effort to obtain a connected and consistent text. In a number of instances these reAvisions have been quite extensive. We have emphasized here the application of Operations Research to industrial problems because this application has been our experience. We fully realize that Operations Research has had an extensive applicaAtion to military problems. We also realize that it has an enormous potential application to community problems, as is evidenced by ChapAter 15.