Planning, Optimal

the aggregate of methods and means that make it possible to select from a set of proposed variants the best (optimal) one for the development of an economic unit, the one that ensures the most efficient use of resources.

Optimal planning can be applied at all levels of the planning and administration of socialist production: the enterprise, the association, the sector, the economic region, and the entire national economy. At the national level, optimal planning is possible only in a socialist economy based on public ownership of the means of production, which permits the planned use of production resources on a national scale in the interests of the whole society.

An optimal plan for the development of an economic unit is drawn up on the basis of the solution of a problem in mathematical programming, in which the conditionally extremal value (maximum or minimum) of a function is found (the target function, or criterion of optimality, of a plan). A specific plan variant can be selected on the basis of the criterion of optimality.