After all, we do have extremely powerful computers these days; can’t you just write a simple program that will evaluate all these possible operating plans one by one and pick the best?
The reason is that for most business problems the amount of possible outcomes is so enormously huge, that it would take even the best of breed computers a million of years to enumerate them all.

That is why there has to be carefully crafted mathematics behind the scenes, guiding this process and making sure the best solution is found and it is found quickly.

And that is exactly what a good optimization solution provides for businesses.