The use of mathematical programming is wide-spread, and yet it is difficult and rare to find in print descriptions of innovative applications. It is an unfortunate fact, for example, that there have been woefully too few papers on applications which have appeared in the pages of Mathematical Programming, even though it is explicitly within the editorial policy to include such manuscripts and despite various informal attempts to encourage such submissions. It is our hope that this Study will signal the desire of the Journal to publish more on the real world uses of mathematical programming.