Subscript-free modeling languages: A tool for facilitating the formulation and use of models

Abstract

This paper presents a subscript-free modeling language (SFL). Several subscript-using modeling languages already have been developed. Unfortunately, managers who are not management science/operations research (MS/OR) specialists have a difficult time working with subscripts. This is the case because such managers typically do not use subscripts and summation notation as part of their jobs. SFL's simple, subscript-free expressions are shown to facilitate both model formulation and use by non MS/OR specialists. Eliminating subscripts also makes it easier to link to database management systems (DBMSs). This linkage facilitates the task of integrating models and data in a decision support system (DSS). That is, SFL models can be stored in, draw inputs from, and return outputs to a DBMS. It is demonstrated that these advantages are obtained without sacrificing expressiveness.