2. WHAT IS OPTIMIZATION? Optimization is a mathematical discipline that concerns the finding of minima and maxima of functions, subject to so-called constraints. Optimization originated in the 1940s, when George Dantzig used mathematical techniques for generating "programs" (training timetables and schedules) for military application.

3. Since then, his "linear programming" techniques and their descendents were applied to a wide variety of problems, from the scheduling of production facilities, to yield management in airlines. Today, optimization comprises a wide variety of techniques from Operations Research, artificial intelligence and computer science, and is used to improve business processes in practically all industries.

4. THE GOAL OF OPTIMIZATION The most common goals are: minimizing cost, maximizing throughput, and/or efficiency.

5. In industry minimizing costs is a natural goal. Such costs might be wastage of materials by cutting shapes optimally, by minimizing transport costs by locating warehouses and products optimally, by arranging production line machinery optimally and by arranging shift patterns to minimize expense.

6. AREAS Fundamentally, there are three parameters that can be adjusted to affect optimal performance. They are: Equipment optimization Operating procedures Control optimization

7. Equipment optimization The first step is to verify that the existing equipment is being used to its fullest advantage by examining operating data to identify equipment bottlenecks.

8. Operating Procedures Operating procedures may vary widely from person-to-person or from shift-to- shift. Automation of the plant can help significantly. But automation won’t help if the operators take control and run the plant in manual.

9. Control optimization In a typical processing plant there are hundreds or even thousands of control loops. Each control loop is responsible for controlling one part of the process, such as maintaining a temperature, level, or flow. If the control loop is not properly designed and tuned, the process runs below its optimum. The process will be more expensive to operate, and equipment will wear out prematurely.

10. OPTIMIZATION PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS There are several optimization problems, such as process design, transportation, logistics, production scheduling… However there is no general solution known for optimization problems that reliably and speedily computes solutions to discrete optimization problems. A variety of computation techniques compete for the best solution. In recent years, it has become clear that different application domains lend themselves to different solution techniques.

11. Sevilay GÖK 2008503025 Industrial Engineering Department, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey

12. TODAY’S ESSAY TOPIC Give an example for a process that should be optimized and explain it.