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parameter

a constant value that is generally a coefficient of a variable in a mathematical equation

payoff table

a table used to show the payoffs that can result from decisions under various states of nature

penalty cost

the penalty (or regret ) suffered by a decision maker when a wrong decision is made

periodic inventory system

a system in which an order is placed for a variable amount at fixed time intervals

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permanent set

in a shortest route network problem, a set of nodes to which the shortest route from the start node has been determined

pessimistic time

one of three time estimates used in a beta distribution to determine an activity time; it is the longest possible time it would take to complete an activity if everything went wrong

pivot column

the column corresponding to the entering variable

Poisson distribution

a probability distribution that describes the occurrence of a relatively rare event in a fixed period of time; often used to define arrivals at a service facility in a queuing system

political/social forecast

a prediction of political and social changes that may occur in the future

population mean

the mean of an entire set of data being analyzed

posterior probability

the altered marginal probability of an event based on additional information

precedence relationship

the relationship exhibited by events that must occur in sequence; such events can be represented by a CPM/PERT network

primal

the original form of a linear programming model

priority

the importance of a goal relative to other goals in a goal programming model

probabilistic techniques

management science techniques that take into account uncertain information and give probabilistic solutions

probability distribution

a distribution showing the probability of occurrence of all events in an experiment

probability tree

a diagram showing the probabilities of the various outcomes of an experiment

production lot size model

an inventory model for a business that produces its own inventory at a gradual rate (also known as the noninstantaneous receipt model)

prohibited route

in a transportation model, a route (i.e., variable) to which no allocation can be made

project crashing

a method for reducing the duration of a CPM/PERT project network by reducing one or more critical path activities and incurring a cost

project evaluation and review technique (PERT)

a network technique, designed for project planning and scheduling, that uses probabilistic activity times

pseudorandom numbers

random numbers generated by a mathematical process rather than by a physical process