ASP, The Art and Science of Practice: A (Very) Short Course in Suboptimization

Sometimes being suboptimal is best. Cuts to the unit hypercube, as Balas and Jeroslow discuss [Balas E, Jeroslow R (1972) Canonical cuts on the unit hypercube. SIAM J. Appl. Math. 23(1):61–69], provide a simple approach to generating alternative optima and (or) providing a family of suboptimal solutions for one’s clients to consider. In this paper, I discuss how to generate useful suboptimal solutions using Balas and Jeroslow’s cuts to the unit hypercube and why clients are willing to pay for them.