Old, but after skimming it for an hour, it seems very applicable. I had been researching genetic algorithms to do scheduling optimization in the past based on a

Old, but after skimming it for an hour, it seems very applicable. I had been researching genetic algorithms to do scheduling optimization in the past based on a 1996 thesis 'A Genetic Algorithm for Resource-Constrained Scheduling' [1] (PDF download alert). I am not an operations manager, but I seem to always have a need to perform similar analyses or be in a position to comment on others. Operations management texts tend to be very broad, or geared to a non-mathematical manager, so I am finding more texts like this one to be more enjoyable and informative for my purposes. The last optimization problem WRT to OM I worked on was to review an OEM's recommended spares list for validity given lead times on certain items, and the FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) to see how many of each spare, and when we should order replenishments to achieve a 95% or greater confidence level that we would have stock of a particular item, and not have any downtime. There is huge software that automatically does this for large companies, but for little to mid-level companies, it is great to be able to dig in to the algorithms to gain a better understanding, and heck, just for the fun and learning experience especially when said company doesn't see the benefit of the larger software. Thanks for the link! [1] http://lancet.mit.edu/~mbwall/phd/thesis/thesis.pdf http://lancet.mit.edu/~mbwall/phd/thesis/thesis.pdf