Optimization processes in practice: Optimierungsprozesse

Optimization is something everybody does or at least claims to do. Most often, optimization just means improvement by parameter studies and not a selection of a best solution from a well defined variety of alternatives. Why? Proper mathematical optimization problem settings are often not used in practice because they ask for too much information beforehand. To answer questions like “What is feasible?” or “What is good?” is a hard task for practitioners before they will see chances and limitations. In consequence practical decision making is asking for flexibility that allows decision makers to interact with the problem model throughout the whole optimization process. This chapter provides some thoughts and insights from optimization in practice and shows how mathematical optimization methods and practical decision making are fruitfully brought together in industrial applications