The 5th edition of Model Building in Mathematical Programming discusses the general principles of model building in mathematical programming and demonstrates how they can be applied by using several simplified but practical problems from widely different contexts.

Model Building in Mathematical Programming covers a wide range of applications in many diverse areas, such as operational research, systems engineering, agriculture, energy planning, mining, logistics and distribution, computer science, management science, statistics, applied mathematics and mathematical biology.

Model Building in Mathematical Programming aims to provide students with a solid foundation in the principles of model building as well as the more mathematical, algorithmic side of the subject which is conventionally taught. It is also intended to provide managers with a fairly non-technical appreciation of the scope and limitations of mathematical programming.

Praise for the 4th Edition:

"Such a text, and this is the only one of this type I know of, should be the basis of all instruction in Mathematical Programming."
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society

"An excellent introduction ... for students of business administration and people who want to see the utility of operations research."
European Journal of Operational Research

This new edition includes:

• New sections on stochastic programming, column generation and constraint logic programming as well as many enhancements of former sections.
• 29 detailed practical problems, including 5 new problems, to enable the reader to build mathematical programming models using the numerical data.

The 5th edition of Model Building in Mathematical Programming discusses the general principles of model building in mathematical programming and demonstrates how they can be applied by using several simplified but practical problems from widely different contexts. Suggested formulations and solutions are given together with some computational experience to give the reader a feel for the computational difficulty of solving that particular type of model. Furthermore, this book illustrates the scope and limitations of mathematical programming, and shows how it can be applied to real situations. By emphasizing the importance of the building and interpreting of models rather than the solution process, the author attempts to fill a gap left by the many works which concentrate on the algorithmic side of the subject.

In this article, H.P. Williams explains his original motivation and objectives in writing the book, how it has been modified and updated over the years, what is new in this edition and why it has maintained its relevance and popularity over the years: http://www.statisticsviews.com/details/feature/4566481/Model-Building-in-Mathematical-Programming-published-in-fifth-edition.html