From finding the least-cost method for manufacturing a given product to determining the most profitable use for a given resource, there are countless practical applications for linear programming models. This self-contained book and disk set provides everything you need to know to apply linear programming to real-world situations—how to prepare input, how to interpret output, what to do if the model will not solve, and how to make your results useful and usable—while entrusting the hard-core arithmetic to the user-friendly computer package on disk. Written in clear prose that stays away from the complex mathematics underlying the technique, Introduction to Practical Linear Programming contains:

• A complete introduction to problem structure, assumptions, applications, and other core concepts
• A detailed, step-by-step guide to model construction (from a problem description to a useful model) and interpretation of output
• Linear programming examples and exercises from a range of real-life areas, including agriculture, manufacturing, finance, and advertising
• Important techniques for troubleshooting and error identification
• Procedures for testing how good your model is—how robust are the results?—and more