By Merriam-Webster dictionary, to optimize is to make as
perfect, effective, or functional as possible. In engineering,
optimization is a collection of methods and techniques to design
and make use of engineering systems as perfectly as possible with
respect to specific parameters. In industrial engineering, one
typical optimization problem is in inventory control. For this
problem, we want to reduce the costs associated with item stocking
and handling in a warehouse. In the simplest form of this problem,
the parameters to be optimized are the quantity of inventory
required to fill existing and anticipated orders, when that
inventory has to be available and the physical capacity of the
warehouse. Optimization requires the representation of the problem
in a mathematical model where the decision variables are the
parameters of the problem.
