MiniZinc

A warehouse manager does not ask for “a constraint optimization problem.” She asks whether tomorrow’s orders can be shipped without overtime. A university administrator does not request “a mixed-integer formulation.” He asks whether lectures can be scheduled without room conflicts. A retail planner does not want “a MiniZinc model.” She wants to know which stores should receive scarce inventory before the promotion starts. ...

A requirements document walks into a model. It says: assign resources, respect capacity, avoid conflicts, minimise waste. The model nods politely, emits a tidy block of MiniZinc, and everyone is briefly tempted to believe the future has arrived. Then someone changes the story from cars to knapsacks, or adds one stray sentence about maximising something, and the same system quietly forgets the assignment. ...