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![[In association with Amazon.com]](amazon2.gif)
For years, we've been recommending books that can help you learn to formulate models and use the Solver's optimization methods more effectively. But users have always reported that they just couldn't find these books, or even special order them from most bookstores. That's because many of them are textbooks which are distributed only through college bookstores, and then only when the books are specified by a professor for a course which is currently being given.
But now there's a better way to get these books: You can order them online from Amazon.com, "Earth's Biggest Bookstore." Amazon.com offers an enormous selection of books, easy and secure credit card ordering, fast and convenient shipping at low shipping costs, and fine customer service. We've joined the Amazon.com Associates Program, through which we can "point" you directly to these books in Amazon.com's online catalog, ready for you to order.
When you click the Ordering Info link for one of these books, you'll be taken directly to the Amazon.com catalog page for that book. If you then click "Add it to your Shopping Cart," Amazon.com will place a tentative order for the book in your "online shopping cart." Only when and if you "check out," confirm the order and supply your credit card and shipping address will this become a definite order. If you add the book to your shopping cart when you first click through, and later confirm the purchase, we'll get a 5% commission on some of these books from Amazon.com.
You may find that some of these textbooks are rather expensive, and that Amazon.com's prices are the same as the publisher's price -- there's no discount. Because of the policies of the college textbook publishers and the limited circulation of these books, apparently even Amazon.com cannot offer them at a discount. In most cases, you'll find that availability varies from 2-3 days to 1-2 weeks -- and in our experience, Amazon.com meets or beats these estimates, which is more than we can say for the special order departments of most bookstores.
There's a lot you can learn from textbooks in the fields of operations research and management science, where the optimization methods used by the Solver were first developed and applied. There are many "classic" optimization problems, for transporting goods, blending materials, scheduling personnel, etc. that are similar across many industries. So it pays to consult books like the ones listed below! If your first acquaintance with optimization came from a course in an MBA program (long ago), these books will serve as a refresher. If you're new to optimization but serious about learning more, these books are a valuable resource.
| Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Management Science, 3rd Edition |
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by Cliff T. Ragsdale, published by South-Western College Publishing. ISBN 0-324-02122-4.
Cliff Ragsdale's book was one of the first to base all of its optimization examples on the Microsoft Excel Solver! You'll find a discussion of linear, nonlinear and integer programming; an explanation of sensitivity analysis and how to use the Solver's reports; topics like goal programming and multiobjective optimization; and additional coverage of regression, time series analysis, queuing, project management, decision analysis, and other topics. The 3rd Edition is new as of June 2000, and features updated coverage of the Excel Solver, more extensive coverage of nonlinear programming, and coverage of nonsmooth optimization using Frontline Systems' Evolutionary Solver.
| Practical Management Science: Spreadsheet Modeling and Applications |
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by S. Christian Albright and Wayne L. Winston, published by Duxbury Press. ISBN 0-534-37135-3.
This textbook, widely used in new MBA courses on management science, provides an extensive introduction covering linear and integer programming, nonlinear optimization, and genetic and evolutionary algorithms using Frontline’s Evolutionary Solver, as well as other management science topics. This book is slightly more challenging than Cliff Ragsdale’s book, but includes an extensive set of spreadsheet models and a whole chapter on the Evolutionary Solver.
| Managerial Spreadsheet Modeling and Analysis | Ordering
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by Rick Hesse, published by Richard D. Irwin. ISBN 0-256-21530-8.
This book teaches you how to formulate a model from a complex business situation, using a four-step process: Picture and paraphrase, verbal model, algebraic model and spreadsheet model. It covers types of models ranging from simple goal-seeking and unconstrained problems to linear, nonlinear and integer programming problems. And it includes over 100 Microsoft Excel 5.0 spreadsheets, covering a wide range of both deterministic and stochastic models.
| Introductory Management Science: Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets |
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by G.D. Eppen, F.J. Gould, C.P. Schmidt, Jeffrey H. Moore, and Larry R. Weatherford, published by Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-889395-0.
The latest version (5th Edition, 1998) of a management science classic, this modern textbook covers linear, integer and nonlinear optimization, Monte Carlo simulation, decision analysis, queuing, forecasting and project management, all from an Excel spreadsheet perspective. An academic version of Decisioneering's Crystal Ball is included for Excel-based simulation. Also included is GLP, a graphic tool that lets you visualize the feasible region in linear programming problems.
| Management Science: Modeling, Analysis and Interpretation | Ordering
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by Jeffrey D. Camm and James R. Evans, published by South-Western College Publishing. ISBN 0-538-82738-6.
This book focuses on modeling and covers both optimization and simulation. It uses the Excel Solver and the (earlier) Lotus Solver in many examples, though some examples use the LINDO optimizer which has its own language for expressing LP models. It covers multiobjective LP models, integer models and network models, but does not cover nonlinear optimization models
| An Introduction to Management
Science: Quantitative Approaches to Decision-Making, Eighth Edition |
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by David R. Anderson, Dennis J. Sweeney, and Thomas A. Williams, published by West Publishing Company. ISBN 0-314-09687-6.
This latest edition of one of the best-selling management science textbooks contains chapter appendices which describe how to use the Excel Solver to set up and solve the problems discussed in that chapter. The same authors have another text, Quantitative Methods for Business, whose Seventh Edition will appear later this year with more extensive appendices on the Solver, and they are working on a text which will make even greater use of spreadsheets.
| AMPL:
A Modeling Language for Mathematical Programming, 2nd Edition |
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by Robert Fourer, David M. Gay and Brian W. Kernighan, published by Duxbury Press. ISBN 0-534-37895-1.
This book is the definitive description of the AMPL algebraic modeling language, which is also the basis for AMPL Plus. The diskette provides a limited-capacity student version of AMPL for DOS, with both linear and nonlinear solvers, and the accompanying booklet provides a student version of AMPL Plus for Windows. The first four chapters of this book provide an introduction to optimization modeling concepts, illustrated in AMPL but applicable to spreadsheet modeling as well. Later chapters provide a more advanced treatment of network models, columnwise formulations, and nonlinear, piecewise-linear and integer linear models. Click on the title to learn more about this book.
| Model Building in Mathematical Programming, 4th Edition |
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By H.P. Williams, published by John Wiley. ISBN 0-471-99788-9
Though it doesn’t cover spreadsheet optimization, this book is still valuable for its explanation of model-building approaches, especially if you are building larger-scale optimization models. It provides an in-depth treatment of modeling for linear and integer programming problems. It mentions nonlinear models only briefly, but it offers a unique treatment of large-scale model structure and decomposition methods. It also includes a complete discussion of 24 models drawn from various industries. The 4th Edition was issued in October 1999.
| Operations Research: Applications and Algorithms, Third Edition | Ordering
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by Wayne L. Winston, published by Duxbury Press. ISBN 0-534-52020-0 (with Windows software), 0-534-20973-4 (with Mac software).
This popular textbook, also written before the advent of spreadsheet optimizers, covers many classic optimization problems and also includes a discussion of some of the algorithms used in the Solver, such as the Simplex method for linear programming, the Branch & Bound method for integer programming, and selected methods for nonlinear programming -- as well as many other topics in operations research.
The following books describe some of the advanced methods for global optimization and non-smooth optimizations used by Frontline's Solver Engines -- especially the field-installable Solver Engines for the Premium Solver Platform.
| Global Optimization in Action |
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by Janos D. Pinter, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-3757-3.
This book -- which won the 2000 INFORMS Computing Society Prize for Research Excellence -- describes the key elements of the research that led to the LGO Global Solver Engine for the Premium Solver Platform. It describes the characteristics of global optimization problems, and a wide range of solution strategies that have been applied to them. It focuses on adaptive partition strategies, including their theoretical convergence and practical implementation. The book also discusses a number of applications of global optimization, including data classification, calibration of complex system models, solution of nonlinear systems, product mixture design, aggregation of expert opinions, and a range of problems from the water management industry.
| Tabu Search |
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by Fred Glover and Manuel Laguna, published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. ISBN 0-7923-9965-X.
This book describes the research that led (among other things) to the OptQuest Solver Engine for the Premium Solver Platform -- and which created the entire field of tabu search and scatter search. It describes the use of short-term and long-term memory in tabu search, strategies such as intensification, diversification, strategic oscillation and path relinking. It relates tabu search to integer programming methods, neural networks, genetic algorithms and simulated annealing. Chapter 8 of the book describes a wide range of applications in planning and scheduling; telecommunications; transportation, routing and network design; manufacturing problems; optimizing structures; and efficient training of neural networks.
| VBA for Modelers: Developing Decision Support Systems with Microsoft Excel |
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by S. Christian Albright, published by Duxbury Press. ISBN 0-534-38012-3.
This brand new (2001) book is a favorite of ours. It's a great introduction to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) in Microsoft Excel, and how it can be used to control the Excel Solver -- or the Premium Solver products -- and build custom applications. There are chapters providing models and VBA code for a wide variety of applications -- just a sample of these are Blending, Employee Scheduling, Product Mix, Production Scheduling, Network Flows and Capital Budgeting. Other chapters feature securities-related applications such as Portfolio Optimization, Finding the Betas of Stocks, Pricing European and American Options, and even a Stock Trading Simulation. Considering its price ($29.95), this book is a great bargain!
There are a wide variety of popular trade books about Microsoft, Lotus 1-2-3, and Corel Quattro Pro. But only a few of these books include coverage of the advanced analytical features of these spreadsheet programs. And unfortunately -- despite our ongoing efforts to contact the authors and correct mistakes -- many of the popular trade books contain more misinformation about the Solver than helpful advice. The following two books are now hard to find, but they should at least give you accurate information about the Solver -- because they contain chapters on the Solver which were written, or rewritten by Dan Fylstra, President of Frontline Systems.
| Special Edition Using Excel 97 | Ordering
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by Ron Person et al, published by Que Books. ISBN 0-7897-0960-0.
This 1250-page guidebook provides the most comprehensive coverage of Excel 97 outside of Excel's own online Help. Its 46 chapters cover almost every Excel feature, though there is only one chapter on Visual Basic for Applications (entire books have been devoted to VBA). Chapter 31 covers the Goal Seek and Solver features. Other chapters of interest include seven chapters on Excel's database features, two on pivot tables, and one each on the Scenario Manager, the Analysis ToolPak, auditing worksheets, and linking and consolidating worksheets.
| Special Edition Using 1-2-3 97 | Ordering
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by Joyce Nielsen et al, published by Que Books. ISBN 0-7897-0143-X.
This 952-page guidebook provides comprehensive coverage of Lotus 1-2-3 97. Appendix A, "Finding Optimal Solutions with the Solver," is a comprehensive guide to the new Solver included with 1-2-3 97, which is very similar to the Excel Solver. There are six chapters on 1-2-3's database features, plus chapters on linking and consolidating worksheets, the Backsolver, Version Manager, and 1-2-3 macros. An appendix provides an introduction to the LotusScript language, a VBA-compatible tool for programming 1-2-3.
