Advantages and Limitations of Dynamic Programming

Advantages:

(1) In certain types of problems such as inventory control management, Chemical Engineering design, dynamic programming may be the only technique that can solve the problems.

(2) Most problems requiring multistage, multi-period or sequential decision process are solved using this type of programming.

(3) Because of its wide range, it is applicable to linear or non-linear problems, discrete or continuous variables, deterministic or stochastic problems.

(4) The mathematical techniques used can be adapted to the computer.

Limitations:

(1) Each problem has to be modeled according to its own constraints and requirements. This requires great experience and ingenuity.

(2) The number of state variables has to be kept low to prevent complicated calculations.

(3) Where applicable, methods such as simplex are more efficient than general programming       approach.