This best-selling volume has long been considered one of the most user accessible books for management science. The new edition retains and updates the traditional, comprehensive coverage of past editions but now adds spreadsheet-based problem solutions to most chapters. In addition, the book is now packaged with free software. The authors provide a comprehensive introduction to quantitative analysis, probability concepts and applications and decision theory models, as well as forecasting, control models, linear programming models and applications, transportation and assignment models, integer programming, goal programming, nonlinear programming, and branch and bound models, network models, project management, lines and queuing theory models and statistical quality control.
Barry Render is the Charles Harwood Distinguished Professor of Management Science at the Roy E. Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He received his M.S. in Operations Research and his Ph.D. in Quantitative Analysis at the University of Cincinnati. He previously taught at George Washington University, the University of New Orleans, Boston University, and George Mason University, where he held the GM Foundation Professorship in Decision Sciences and was Chair of the Decision Science Department. Dr. Render has also worked in the aerospace industry for General Electric, McDonnell Douglas, and NASA.
Professor Render has co-authored ten textbooks with Prentice-Hall, including Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets, Operations Management, Principles of Operations Management, Service Management, Introduction to Management Science, and Cases and Readings in Management Science. His more than one hundred articles on a variety of management topics have appeared in Decision Sciences, Production and Operations Management, Interfaces, Information and Management, the Journal of Management Information Systems, Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, and Operations Management Review, among others.
Dr. Render has also been honored as an AACSB Fellow and named as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 1982 and again in 1993. He was twice vice-president of the Decision Science Institute Southeast Region and served as Software Review Editor for Decision Line from 1989 to 1995. He has also served as Editor of the New York Times Operations Management special issues from 1996 to 2001. Finally, Professor Render has been actively involved in consulting for government agencies and for many corporations, including NASA; the FBI; the U.S. Navy; Fairfax County, Virginia; and C8zP Telephone.
He teaches operations management courses in Rollins College's MBA and Executive MBA programs. In 1995 he was named as that school's Professor of the Year, and in 1996 was selected by Roosevelt University to receive the St. Claire Drake Award for Outstanding Scholarship.
Ralph Stair has been Professor of Management Science at Florida State University for twenty years and is now entering its phased retirement program. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University and an MBA from Tulane University. Under the guidance of Ken Ramsing and Alan Eliason, he received his Ph.D. in operations management from the University of Oregon.
He has taught at the University of Oregon, the University of Washington, the University of New Orleans, and Florida State University. He has twice taught in Florida State University's Study Abroad Program in London. Over the years, his teaching has been concentrated in the areas of information systems, operations research, and operations management.
Dr. Stair is a member of several academic organizations, including the Decision Sciences Institute and INFORMS, and he regularly participates at national meetings. He has published numerous articles and books, including Managerial Decision Modeling with Spreadsheets, Introduction to Management Science, Cases and Readings in Management Science, Production and Operations Management: A Self-Correction Approach, Fundamentals of Information Systems, Principles of Information Systems, Introduction to Information Systems, Computers in Today's World, Principles of Data Processing, Learning to Live with Computers, Programming in BASIC, Essentials of BASIC Programming, Essentials of FORTRAN Programming, and Essentials of COBOL Programming.
Dr. Stair divides his time between Florida and Colorado. He enjoys skiing, biking, kayaking, and other outdoor activities.
Michael E. Hanna is Professor of Decision Sciences at the University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL). He has a B.A. in Economics, an M.S. in Mathematics, and a Ph.D. in Operations Research from Texas Tech University. For over twenty years, he has been teaching courses in statistics, management science, forecasting, and other quantitative methods. His dedication to teaching has been recognized with the Beta Alpha Psi teaching award in 1995.
Professor Hanna has authored a textbook in management science, published over thirty articles and professional papers, and has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Computers and Operations Research. In 1996, the UHCL Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma presented him with the Outstanding Scholar Award.
At UHCL, Professor Hanna has served as program coordinator of the Decision Sciences unit and as Director of the Center for Economic Development and Research. In 2001, he received the UHCL President's Distinguished Service Award. He recently completed a term as Vice-President of the Decision Sciences Institute (DSI). He has been active in DSI serving on the Innovative Education Committee, the Regional Advisory Committee, and the Nominating Committee. For the Southwest DSI, he has held several positions including President, and he received the Southwest DSI Distinguished Service Award in 1997.
