The book by Professor David Woorduff and co-author Stefan Voß from the University of Hamburg begins with an easy-to-read introduction to the concepts associated with the creation of optimization models for production planning. These concepts are then applied to well-known planning models, namely mrp and MRP II. From this foundation, the book develops fairly sophisticated models for supply chain management.

Another unique feature is that models are developed with an eye toward implementation. In fact, there is a chapter that provides explicit examples of implementation of the basic models using a variety of popular, commercially available modeling languages. The new edition is updated and provides extensions.