As optimization techniques have developed, a gap has arisen between the people devising the methods and the people who actually need to use them. Research into methods is necessarily long-term and located usually in academic establishments; whereas the application of an optimization technique, normally in an industrial environment, has to be justified financially in the short term. The gap is probably inevitable; but there is no need for textbooks to reflect it. Teaching of optimization techniques separately from their connection with applications is pointless. This book gives a detailed exposition of the techniques. In this first volume, T. A. J. Nicholson demonstrates the full range of techniques available to the practitioner for the solution of varying problems. For each technique, the background reasoning behind its development is explained in simple terms; where helpful it is supported by a geometrical argument; and the iterative algorithm for finding the optimum is defined clearly. These steps enable the reader not only to see plainly what is happening in the method but also to reach a level of understanding necessary to write computer programs for optimization techniques. Problems are tackled in the same way--by searching a feasible region for an optimum. This approach helps the reader to develop the most essential of all skills--selecting appropriate techniques for different circumstances. The numerous worked examples in the text, supported by worked solutions, and the exercises at the end of the chapters are important aids to learning and to teachers. This book serves as an introduction to optimization techniques for students as well as a reference work for the practitioner in business and industry.

The origin of any industrial optimization study lies in the theory that some improvement can be made in a controllable system. The possibility for improvements may arise in any context, for example, in the control of a chemical plant, the organization of production to meet delivery dates, the design of rubber compounds, in traffic signal settings, and so on. In this volume, T. A. J. Nicholson deals with applications of the industrial optimization techniques demonstrated in the first volume of this two-part project, Optimization in Industry: Optimization Techniques. Applications are classified by their main functional areas in industrial planning, design, and control. The fields covered are machine sequencing, stock control and scheduling, plant renewal, distribution, financial problems, and chemical process control and design. These last two, in particular, are subjects often overlooked in operations research curricula. In each field the place and status of optimization techniques is first described and then a wide range of realistic case studies and examples are reviewed, many of them international. The problems given in this volume are primarily concerned with formulation not with solution; the task is to formulate the problems to be solved by one or more of the methods described in volume one. By connecting the optimization techniques with their applications, the gap between the people devising the methods and the people who actually need to use them is bridged. As with the first volume, this text is also supported by new exercises and model answers making this book important as an introduction to the application of optimization techniques for students as well as a reference work for the practitioner.

The American Journal of Sociology says of this book "Mouzelis knows and handles the literature well and accurately brings the reader up to the early sixties. A summarizer, synthesizer, and historian of modern theories, he serves his novice well. The more initiated student of formal organizations will appreciate the critiques of his favorite theorists: Mouzelis cuts clean and bold. Along with order, he does add critical insight to his borrowed materials." This book is a carefully integrated and very straightforward guide to the labyrinth of theory on organizational phenomena, and surveys the most important approaches to the study of organizations and the manner in which these approaches are interrelated. The author's interest is in showing the successive stages of theory generation and development in the two major traditions of thought on this subject, thereby providing a coherent overview of the field, a method for systematically investigating it, and an unusually broadening supplement to the standard treatment of organizations in undergraduate and graduate courses. The author discusses the writings of such theorists as Marx, Weber, and Michels who, from a very wide perspective, tried to assess the impact of large-scale bureaucracy on the power structure of modern society. He also examines the other tradition of organizational writings that starts with Taylor and the movement of scientific management. Finally, an analysis is made of recent theoretical trends that indicate a certain convergence of the bureaucracy and the managerial lines of thought. In emphasizing the conceptual frameworks that underlie organization theory and in showing the dynamics of theory progression, the author provides students with invaluable assistance in understanding the levels of theoretical analysis, the variables to be taken into consideration, and the manner in which these variables may be accounted for in a systematic manner.

The origin of any industrial optimization study lies in the theory that some improvement can be made in a controllable system. The possibility for improvements may arise in any context, for example, in the control of a chemical plant, the organization of production to meet delivery dates, the design of rubber compounds, in traffic signal settings, and so on. In this volume, T. A. J. Nicholson deals with applications of the industrial optimization techniques demonstrated in the first volume of this two-part project, Optimization in Industry: Optimization Techniques. Applications are classified by their main functional areas in industrial planning, design, and control. The fields covered are machine sequencing, stock control and scheduling, plant renewal, distribution, financial problems, and chemical process control and design. These last two, in particular, are subjects often overlooked in operations research curricula. In each field the place and status of optimization techniques is first described and then a wide range of realistic case studies and examples are reviewed, many of them international. The problems given in this volume are primarily concerned with formulation not with solution; the task is to formulate the problems to be solved by one or more of the methods described in volume one. By connecting the optimization techniques with their applications, the gap between the people devising the methods and the people who actually need to use them is bridged. As with the first volume, this text is also supported by new exercises and model answers making this book important as an introduction to the application of optimization techniques for students as well as a reference work for the practitioner.

As optimization techniques have developed, a gap has arisen between the people devising the methods and the people who actually need to use them. Research into methods is necessarily long-term and located usually in academic establishments; whereas the application of an optimization technique, normally in an industrial environment, has to be justified financially in the short term. The gap is probably inevitable; but there is no need for textbooks to reflect it. Teaching of optimization techniques separately from their connection with applications is pointless. This book gives a detailed exposition of the techniques.

In this first volume, T. A. J. Nicholson demonstrates the full range of techniques available to the practitioner for the solution of varying problems. For each technique, the background reasoning behind its development is explained in simple terms; where helpful it is supported by a geometrical argument; and the iterative algorithm for finding the optimum is defined clearly. These steps enable the reader not only to see plainly what is happening in the method but also to reach a level of understanding necessary to write computer programs for optimization techniques.

Problems are tackled in the same way--by searching a feasible region for an optimum. This approach helps the reader to develop the most essential of all skills--selecting appropriate techniques for different circumstances. The numerous worked examples in the text, supported by worked solutions, and the exercises at the end of the chapters are important aids to learning and to teachers. This book serves as an introduction to optimization techniques for students as well as a reference work for the practitioner in business and industry.

"T. A. J. Nicholson" is Senior Lecturer at the London Business School with research and consulting interests in industrial control systems.

"The American Journal of Sociology" says of this book "Mouzelis knows and handles the literature well and accurately brings the reader up to the early sixties. A summarizer, synthesizer, and historian of modern theories, he serves his novice well. The more initiated student of formal organizations will appreciate the critiques of his favorite theorists: Mouzelis cuts clean and bold. Along with order, he does add critical insight to his borrowed materials."
This book is a carefully integrated and very straightforward guide to the labyrinth of theory on organizational phenomena, and surveys the most important approaches to the study of organizations and the manner in which these approaches are interrelated. The author's interest is in showing the successive stages of theory generation and development in the two major traditions of thought on this subject, thereby providing a coherent overview of the field, a method for systematically investigating it, and an unusually broadening supplement to the standard treatment of organizations in undergraduate and graduate courses.
The author discusses the writings of such theorists as Marx, Weber, and Michels who, from a very wide perspective, tried to assess the impact of large-scale bureaucracy on the power structure of modern society. He also examines the other tradition of organizational writings that starts with Taylor and the movement of scientific management. Finally, an analysis is made of recent theoretical trends that indicate a certain convergence of the bureaucracy and the managerial lines of thought.
In emphasizing the conceptual frameworks that underlie organization theory and in showing the dynamics of theory progression, the author provides students with invaluable assistance in understanding the levels of theoretical analysis, the variables to be taken into consideration, and the manner in which these variables may be accounted for in a systematic manner.
"Nicos P. Mouzelis" was lecturer in sociology, University of Leicester. He is currently professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and is a member of the Hellenic Observatory's Advisory Board. He was a founding member of the Association for the Study of Modern Greece and has written many articles on Modern Greece. He helped organize the School of Social Science at the University of Crete and the curriculum at the School of Social Science at the University of the Aegean.