Many companies are faced with complex decisions as to how to best manage their production facilities and the associated logistical environment. Such an environment can be very dynamic; markets change, material supplies change, costs change, production capabilities change, and trade agreements change. In such a dynamic environment, one cannot rely on traditional operating practices and policies to guarantee maximum financial performance.

One of the roles of management in a corporation is to maximize return to the shareholders. "Return" in this context refers to economic value added to the capital invested by the shareholders. Economic value (profit) is maximized when the resources in a company are employed in an optimum manner. Resources in this context are defined broadly and include such items as material resources, labor, financial capital, machinery, markets and time.

The conventional approach to evaluating the use of resources is to apply various cost and revenue calculations to determine the "best" operating pattern. However, such calculations often are limited in scope and do not address the complex financial and process-related interactions of the manufacturing and logistics environment. Without the proper decision-making tools managers can be reluctant to make necessary changes in the business.

Optware taps the tremendous optimization power of linear programming and presents it in an easy to use flexible format. Optware can be thought of as a "virtual" business model complete with process flows and associated costs and revenues. Optware encourages managers to explore new business practices because such ideas can be tested in the Optware "laboratory" to ensure viability before implementation.

Linear programme