A practical guide to using Excel for decision making, forecasting, optimization, and more KEY FEATURES ● Solve a wide range of decision-making problems in operations, finance, and statistics. ● Build and use Excel models to analyze data and make informed decisions. ● Use the Excel Solve function to find the optimal solution to a problem. DESCRIPTION This book on management science serves as a valuable resource for enhancing problem-solving and decision-making skills across various domains, including organizations and business. By reading this book, you will acquire the ability to tackle complex decisions that would otherwise be challenging. The book covers a wide array of techniques, such as profit and performance maximization, Return on Investment (ROI) optimization, as well as cost, time, and risk minimization through tools like Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity analysis. Throughout the book, you'll come across numerous real-life examples and case studies from diverse fields such as banking, finance, transportation, manufacturing, manpower assignment, scheduling, inventory management, and even food and product mix. The book demonstrates both linear and nonlinear techniques, utilizing Excel Solver for finding solutions. Once you grasp the usage of Solver, you'll be able to apply the learned tools effectively to address problems relevant to your background, experience, and preferences. What sets this book apart is its hands-on approach, leveraging Excel as the primary tool for problem-solving. Rather than relying on complex mathematical formulations and algorithms, you'll learn how to set up and solve problems in a straightforward manner using Excel. WHAT YOU WILL LEARN ● Learn how to set up decision making models on Excel. ● Solve optimization problems in the areas of business and operations. ● Harness the power of the Excel Solver add-in. ● Apply Monte Carlo simulations of risky investments using Excel. ● Learn how to predict future values using Excel forecasting features. WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR This book is for any business or operations practitioner, regardless of their role or experience level. Whether you are an analyst, a business professional, or a student, this book can help you to improve your problem-solving and decision-making skills. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Making Better Decisions with Management Science 2. Exploring Management Science Optimization Techniques 3. Unleash the Power of Excel’s Solver for Optimizations 4. Optimize Product Mix 5. Investment and Portfolio Optimization with Excel’s Solver 6. The Assignment Problem Challenges and Solutions 7. Solving Transportation Supply Chain Problems 8. Marketing Applications of Optimal Media Mix 9. Integer and Binary Optimization 10. The Scheduling Puzzle 11. Nonlinear Optimization Applied to Inventory and Facility Location 12. Monte Carlo Simulations 13. Simplifying Forecasting Using Excel’s Forecast Sheet Feature 14. Queuing and Waiting Time

Volume 19 of Applications of Management Science focuses on the application of management science methodologies, data envelopment analysis and multi-criteria decision making.

Papers presented at the conference held at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in 2007.

This book includes case studies that examine the application of operations research to improve or increase efficiency in industry and operational activities. This collection of “living case studies” is all based on the author’s 30-year career of consulting and advisory work. These true-to life industrial applications illustrate the research and development of solutions, as well as potential implementation and integration problems that may occur when adopting these methods into a business. Among the topics covered in the chapters include optimization in circuit board manufacturing, Decision Support System (DSS) for plant loading and dispatch planning, as well as development of important test procedures for tyre and pharma industry with shelf life constraints. In particular, the study on deckle optimization should be of great help to managers in paper industry and consultants for development of deckle optimization software. The application of operations research throughout the industry makes it an ideal guide for industrial executives, professionals and practitioners responsible for quality and productivity improvement.

Audience: Anyone concerned with the science, techniques and ideas of how decisions are made."--BOOK JACKET.

"This book examines related research in decision, management, and other behavioral sciences in order to exchange and collaborate on information among business, industry, and government, providing innovative theories and practices in operations research"--Provided by publisher.

Please contact the authors at upstream.petroleum.in.excel@gmail.com for details of how to access the trial version of Crystal Ball, as well as the Excel and other files which are *not* part of the e-book version download. "This is a book no deal team should be without. It is a must for those involved in upstream oil and gas transactions, planning, budgeting, investment appraisal and portfolio management. Its step–by–step approach cuts through complexity, making it comprehensive and understandable by a wide range of users with a wide range of abilities. It can be used as a textbook, an introductory primer or as a handbook that you can dip in and out of or read cover to cover." —Michael Lynch-Bell, Senior Advisor, Oil & Gas, Ernst & Young LLP; ex-officio Chairman, UN Expert Group on Resource Classification In the upstream petroleum industry, it is the value of post–tax cashflows which matters most to companies, governments, investors, lenders, analysts, and advisors. Calculating these cashflows and understanding their “behavior,” however, is challenging, as the industry’s specialized fiscal systems can be complex, jargon–laden, and sometimes seem to be a “world of their own”. Upstream Petroleum Fiscal and Valuation Modeling in Excel: A Worked Examples Approach demystifies fiscal analysis which, unlike disciplines such as Earth sciences and engineering, can be learned from a book. Written in plain English for laymen and for experienced practitioners alike, it is a reader–friendly, clear, practical, step–by–step hands–on guide for both reference and self–paced study. The book does not catalogue the 100+ different petroleum fiscal regimes in use at the time of writing. Rather, drawing on the authors’ combined 48 years’ experience, it takes a more timeless, generic treatment, by covering the most common variants of royalties, taxation, production sharing arrangements, bonuses and abandonment funding , through a dual approach: first, showing how to model them in Excel , and then providing interactive exercises to prompt (and answer) questions that analyze impacts on cashflows. In addition to the main text, the book consists of over 120 Excel files (ranging from modular examples to full models) in Excel 2007 and 2003 formats; over 400 pages of supplementary PDF files; VBA features to enhance model functionality; and an introduction to risk modeling with exercises for the included trial version of Oracle’s Crystal Ball software. It offers both a wealth of content and models equal to or surpassing what is available from fiscal modeling courses costing several times more; and greater insights into underlying calculations than commercially available “black box” fiscal software. New US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules planned for 2013 will force petroleum companies to disclose more fiscal information on an individual country basis. This will make it more important than ever for analysts to understand how to model oil and gas terms and the potential impacts of the disclosed government payments on future oil and gas company profitability. Due to the heavy use of graphics and cross references used in this particular text, some readers might find that the printed book offers a more optimal reading experience than certain e-formats particularly with the Kindle eMobi format.

Analytics is one of a number of terms which are used to describe a data-driven more scientific approach to management. Ability in analytics is an essential management skill: knowledge of data and analytics helps the manager to analyze decision situations, prevent problem situations from arising, identify new opportunities, and often enables many millions of dollars to be added to the bottom line for the organization. The objective of this book is to introduce analytics from the perspective of the general manager of a corporation. Rather than examine the details or attempt an encyclopaedic review of the field, this text emphasizes the strategic role that analytics is playing in globally competitive corporations today. The chapters of this book are organized in two main parts. The first part introduces a problem area and presents some basic analytical concepts that have been successfully used to address the problem area. The objective of this material is to provide the student, the manager of the future, with a general understanding of the tools and techniques used by the analyst.

This highly-esteemed text introduces readers to the key ideas of modeling and management decision making that will be important to them throughout their careers. Addressing the needs of readers interested in both business administration and decision science careers, the book provides a conceptual foundation for all topics and the role of spreadsheet modeling techniques in the larger context of business decision-making. This text fully integrated Excel spreadsheets. It is packaged with a free CD-ROM which contains the student version of Crystal Ball Software, Excel templates, plus much, much more. Part of JIT program.