From the Shadows.

The article deals with the application of linear programming in management science and operations research. Many of the young engineers really believed then that companies in the process industries existed primarily to apply and display creations, refineries, chemical plants, pipelines, and so forth. Certainly these creations were visible to the general public and commanded a certain amount of bemused respect. Despite the flowering of general purpose, widely available software, LP in the mid-60's was mainly used by large, technically-oriented organizations. Wider use was delayed by high computer costs, limited availability of suitable computers, lack of management awareness of LP, and a shortage of capable LP practitioners. LP flourished in the steel, food and beverage, and forest product companies. But it was used most extensively in the petroleum industry. The large integrated oil companies used LP heavily, first for gasoline blending, then for refinery operations planning, crude oil allocation, and distribution planning. LP's marketplace has grown to include a host of new industries, as well as its traditional ones. Industries such as banking, financial services, health care, electric Dower generation, container manufacture, pipelining, and consumer products, all use LP.