Numerical Solution of the Problem of Optimum Distribution of Effort

Abstract

This paper is an extension of previously published work by Bernard O. Koopman to the general case of any number of tasks and any effect function. A systematic method for the numerical calculation of the maximum effect and its corresponding optimum distribution is presented in a form which is also suitable for solution on an automatic digital computer. For the special case of additive returns which saturate, a special graphical or numerical method for any number of tasks is presented with an example worked out in detail. A similar method for multiplicative effects is sketched. Operations Research , ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.