OptTek Systems, Inc.
Global Optimization
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OptQuest® is a computer software system that allows users to automatically search for optimal solutions to complex systems. You can easily define the variables you control, the objectives you wish to maximize or minimize, and any conditions you are required to meet…then let OptQuest search for the best solution. OptQuest intelligently chooses possible scenarios, presents them to your model for evaluation, and then uses the results to find even better possibilities. OptQuest gets to the best scenarios quickly: Its state-of-the-art algorithms, which are based on tabu search, scatter search, integer programming, and neural networks, can handle very complex models with ease. Currently, there are ten commercial versions of OptQuest and OptQuest CL integrated with simulation packages.
AcuRisk (a product of e-Acumen)
Arena (a product of Rockwell Software/Systems Modeling Corp.)
Crystal Ball (a product of Decisioneering, Inc.)
CSIM (a product of Mesquite Software)
Micro Saint (a product of Micro Analysis and Design, Inc.)
Premium Solver Platform (a product of Frontline Systems)
Quest (a product of Delmia Corp.)
Strategizer (a product of Hyperformix)
Taylor ED (a product of F&H Simulations, Inc.)
Parallel OptQuest CL/Linda (Linda is a product of SCA, Inc.)
OptQuest, the software system developed by OptTek, replaces the inaccuracy of trial-and-error, which has been the only way previously available to search for effective options using simulation, with a potent search engine that can pinpoint the best decisions that simulation potentially makes available. A critical function of simulation is to determine the merit of different decision alternatives. Standard simulation packages give the decision- maker no help in identifying good alternatives to evaluate. More importantly, they offer no guidance or insight into the nature of alternatives that can yield the best decisions. To illustrate, the intelligent simulation user may want to know:
What is the most effective factory layout?
What is the safest equipment replacement policy?
What is the most cost effective inventory policy?
What is the best workforce allocation?
What is the most productive operating schedule?
What is the best investment portfolio?
What is the most effective fault tolerant design of precision components?
The answers to such questions require a painstaking examination of multiple scenarios, where each scenario in turn requires the implementation of an appropriate simulation to determine the consequences for costs, profits and risks. The critical "missing component" is to disclose which decision scenarios are the ones that should be investigated -- and still more completely, to identify good scenarios automatically by a search process designed to find the best set of decisions. Traditional simulation packages provide no means of fulfilling this critical function.
The OptQuest system fills the gap that exists in other systems, which leaves the decision maker without support when faced with the need to determine effective courses of action. At the same time, OptQuest enables the decision maker to specify a variety of important relationships to control the determination of optimal decisions, such as:
ranges of key parameters
budget limitations
machine capacities
minimum and maximum lot sizes
limits on hours worked
links between components or subsystems
OptQuest then determines the strategic options that are investigated under its guidance, and which it successively passes to the simulation package for evaluation. The resulting search isolates scenarios that yield the highest quality outcomes for profits, costs and risks, according to the criteria selected by the decision maker.
OptQuest can handle very complex models with ease. Currently, there are ten commercial versions of OptQuest and OptQuest Callable Library (OptQuest CL) integrated with simulation packages. OptQuest CL provides a tool to facilitate the development of applications that require the optimization of complex systems. The following picture characterizes the interface between OptQuest CL and a user-written application.
The state-of-the-art optimization technology embedded in OptQuest can now be used directly by analysts to search for optimal solutions to complex business and engineering problems. User-written applications can communicate with OptQuest CL via a set of functions that are both flexible and intuitive. OptQuest CL uses the metaheuristic, mathematical optimization, and neural network components of OptQuest to guide the search for best solutions to decision and planning problems of all types. The user-written application tells OptQuest CL the quality of each solution OpQuest CL generates during the search, by calling an evaluator (such as an objective function) that can take any form. In some situations, for example, the evaluator may simulate a complex system to determine its behavior based on a proposed solution.
The OptQuest Callable Library is written in C and can be distributed as either a static library (for Windows or Unix compilers) or as a dynamic linked library (DLL). The dynamic linked library allows OptQuest CL to be used with a variety of programming languages. For example, users who prefer to take advantage of visual interfaces will find it very easy to use the DLL version of the library within Visual Basic applications.
Need More Information?
Visit www.OptTek.com or contact:
OptTek Systems, Inc.
1919 Seventh Street
Boulder, CO 80302
303.447.3255