Abstract

This editorial introduces the Special Issue “Mathematical Methods and Operation Research in Planning, Scheduling and Supply Chain Operations Management” of the journal Mathematics. The Special Issue gathers nine peer-reviewed papers that, together, illustrate the breadth of contemporary operations research applied to the planning and control of modern industrial systems. The accepted contributions span the full methodological spectrum—from exact combinatorial optimisation (constraint programming, branch and bound, and mixed-integer programming) through heuristics, metaheuristics and reinforcement learning to worst-case performance analysis and stochastic models—and they address problems across the whole operations hierarchy, ranging from single- and parallel-machine scheduling, flow shops and flexible job shops to inventory systems and supply-chain logistics, with a recurrent emphasis on sustainability, robustness and real-world applicability. This editorial summarises the scope of the Special Issue and the individual contributions, and outlines some cross-cutting trends and directions for future research.

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