Despite the increasing necessity for information on allocating dwindling resources, resource-allocation behavior is not nearly so well understood as choice behavior (selection from two or more already defined alternatives, events, or lotteries.) Although there have been scores of books devoted to the optimal model for making resource-allocation decisions there has never been a book discussing the cognitive aspects of this behavior. This book answers the question of how people make such decisions while explaining how Linear Programming can be applied within the context of resource-allocation. It also takes the reader step-by-step into several types of problems under varying conditions, including harsh and benign environments, maximization and minimization, multi-dimensional, and cyclical problems.

Most books on inventory theory use the item approach to determine stock levels, ignoring the impact of unit cost, echelon location, and hardware indenture. Optimal Inventory Modeling of Systems is the first book to take the system approach to inventory modeling. The result has been dramatic reductions in the resources to operate many systems - fleets of aircraft, ships, telecommunications networks, electric utilities, and the space station. Although only four chapters and appendices are totally new in this edition, extensive revisions have been made in all chapters, adding numerous worked-out examples. Many new applications have been added including commercial airlines, experience gained during Desert Storm, and adoption of the Windows interface as a standard for personal computer models.

Bower and Clark G.