LogoBestPlan the father of WhatsOPtimal
Created in 1981, just after the introduction of the IBM math coprocessor chip.
Intended for the Pulp and Paper Industry as a planning tool.

seeana, formerly Rosetta Systems

Demonstration of  BestPlan 

DosBox/DosBox-X supports a wide range of operating systems including: Windows
- DosBox can be installed on Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. macOS - DOSBox can be installed on macOS X, and macOS. Linux
- DOSBox can be installed on various distributions of Linux such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch Linux.

 DosBox/DosBox-X Floppy imagefile for DoxBox or DosBox-X: 

DosBox/DosBox-X -noconsole -nolog -noautoexec -c "boot BP-DosBox.ima"
Image File:(2.9MB): BP-DosBox.ima
Documentation:(672KB): BestPlan.pdf


new    Now also in DosBox-X  WhatsOptimal demonstration for students available!

URL here.

ScreenShots:

banner           demomenu

screen6           screen5

screen1           screen2

screen3           screen4

BestPlan: Introduction
BestPlan is an economic planning system designed to be easy to use and easy to understand. It is completely self-contained for use in an IBM-PC planning environment.
BestPlan provides a simple effective method of performing computer based mathematical modeling through linear programming, to help executives and managers choose between alternative uses of the company's resources. These decisions are designed to either MAXIMIZE the company's profits or to MINIMIZE production cost.
UNIQUE CONCEPT OF MODELING:
BestPlan uses a unique concept of mathematical modeling which eliminates the need for a mathematician-analyst to setup a planning model. The model in BestPlan is not represented through mathematical equations and relations, (although the capability to do so is fully supported) but rather through material flow representations where a material accumulates cost and value-added as the material moves from production, distribution and the market place.
This step-by-step flow of the material and the cost it accumulates is the INPUT model for BestPlan.
IN SUMMARY:
 Mathematical modeling through linear programming could be accomplished with BestPlan using either:
        -  STEP-BY-STEP material FLOW Representations
        -  MATHEMATICAL formulations and equations

BestPlan also simplifies the complexity of analyzing multiple scenario (what-if) analysis conveniently for the planner. The planner can produce a report which shows all the production volumes and cost for all the scenarios (what-if) analyses all in one report page. This is accomplished through a specially tailored database management system with a template-driven report writing capability. All reports and displays are created through templates. These templates may be generated by the planner using any screen editor or word processor available.

SUMMARY
Is BestPlan and its solution mathematically accurate to be usefull to students of linear algebra, already exposed to more complex methods of mathematical modeling  Maybe NOT, and some professors may comment that it is a simple “math toy”. In the real world, not all variables react in straight lines, and BestPlan LP solver may not be the best algorithm around.  But, in BestPlan, the emphasis is on the what-if analysis, to illustrate the use of linear algebra as a decision making tool.  In this realm, it is all relative, and uses the same underlining factors, which will cancel themselves out, i.e. the math model  and the LP solver.  So for creating awareness of linear optimization BestPlan does a very good job.