COM 3372
Management Science
Shanika Kumarasinghe
Lecturer (Probationary)
Department of Commerce
Faculty of management studies and commerce
University of Sri Jayewardenepura
Session Two:
Linear Programming: Model Formulation
Learning Outcome..
After Studying This Lesson, You Should Be Able To;
✓Formulate a linear programming model
Recommended Reading………………..
• Read Chapter 2,
• Hamdy A. Taha. (2017). Operations
Research: An Introduction, Tenth
Edition, Pearson Education Limited,
England.
Linear Programming (LP)
• LP is a powerful and widely used
mathematical technique for
determining the optimum allocation of
resources and obtaining a particular
objective when there are alternative
uses of resources.
Manufacturing
• Production Planning: LP can optimize the production schedule to minimize costs
and maximize output, taking into account constraints such as labour, materials,
and machine capacity.
• Blending Problems: In industries like oil refining, LP can determine the optimal
mix of raw materials to produce desired products while minimizing costs.
Transportation and Logistics
• Routing and Scheduling: LP helps in finding the most efficient routes for
delivery trucks to minimize travel time and fuel consumption while meeting
delivery deadlines.
• Supply Chain Optimization: LP can optimize the flow of goods through the
supply chain, ensuring that products are delivered to the right locations at the right
time with minimal cost.
Finance and Investment
• Portfolio Optimization: LP is used to allocate investments across different assets
to maximize returns while minimizing risk, considering constraints like budget
and risk tolerance.
• Capital Budgeting: LP helps firms decide which projects to invest in to maximize
the net present value, given a limited budget and other resource constraints.
Agriculture
• Crop Planning: LP can determine the optimal mix of crops to plant to maximize
profit or yield, considering constraints like land availability, water resources, and
crop rotation requirements.
• Livestock Feed Optimization: LP helps in formulating animal feed to meet
nutritional requirements at the lowest cost by selecting the optimal combination of
feed ingredients.
Single objective
Limited resources
Basic Linear relationship (Constraints and objective
Requirements functions)
Deterministic parameters (Coefficients of objective
function and constraints)
Non-negativity
Divisibility
Additivity
1) Identify the problem
2) Collection of data and information
Steps for
application of
3) Model formulation
Linear
programming
4) Model solution
5) Interpretation
LP Model formulation
Step 1- Identify decision variables
Step 2- Construct objective function
Step 3- Develop constraints
Step 4- Construct a non-negativity constraint
Example 1
• Suppose an industry is manufacturing two types of products; Product 1 and Product 2. The profits
per Kg of the two products are Rs.30 and Rs.40 respectively. These two products require
processing in three types of machines. The following table shows the available machine hours per
day and the time required on each machine to produce one Kg of P1 and P2. Formulate the
problem in the form of a linear programming model.
Example 2
• A company produces two products: A and B. Each unit of
product A requires 2 kgs of materials and 4 labour hours to
process, while each unit of product B requires 3 kgs of raw
materials and 3 hours of labour of the same sort.
• Every week, the company has 60 kgs of raw materials and 96
labour hours. Unit profits for A and B are Rs. 40 and Rs. 30,
respectively.
• Formulate this problem as a linear programming.
Example 3
• Reddy Mikks produces both interior and exterior paints from two raw
materials, M1 and M2. The following table provides the basic data of
the problem:
The daily demand for interior paint cannot exceed that for exterior paint by more
than 1 ton. Also, the maximum daily demand for interior paint is 2 tons. Reddy
Mikks wants to determine the optimum (best) product mix of interior and exterior
paints that maximizes the total daily profit.
Example 4
• A company produces two products M & N which have a profit of Rs.
250 and Rs. 220 respectively. Each unit of product must be processed
in two assembly lines. The required product time is as follows.
Product Hours/ Unit
Line 1 Line 2
M 4 5
N 6 3
Total hours 840 750
Formulate a Linear programming model to determine the optimum
product mix that will maximize profit.
Example 5
A Company produces two types of pen, P & Q. Pen P is superior quality and pen Q
is lower quality. Profit on pens P & Q Rs. 65 and 58 per pen respectively. The raw
material required for each pen P is twice that for pen Q. The supply of raw
materials is sufficient only for 2,000 pens of type Q per day. Pen P requires a
special clip and only 800 such clips are available per day. For pen Q, only 950 clips
are available per day. Develop a linear programming model so that the company
can make maximum profit.
Example 6
• Ozark Farms uses at least 800 lb of special feed daily. The special
feed is a mixture of corn and soybean meal with the following
compositions:
The dietary requirements of the special feed are at least 30% protein
and at most 5% fiber. The goal is to determine the daily minimum-cost
feed mix.
Example 7
• A rubber company is engaged in producing 3 different kinds of tyres; A, B and C.
These three different tyres are produced at the company’s 2 different plants with
different production capacities. In a normal 8 hrs working day plant 1 produces 50,
100 and 100 tyres of A, B and C respectively. Plant 2 produces 60, 60 and 200
tyres of type A, B and C respectively. The monthly demand for tyres A, B and C is
2,500, 3,000 and 7,000 units respectively. The daily cost of operation of plants 1
and 2 is Rs. 2,500 and Rs. 3,500 respectively. Find the minimum number of days
of operation per month at 2 different plants to minimize the total costs while
meeting the demand.
Solution method of linear programming
❑Graphical solution method (GSM) (This is limited to LP models
containing only two decision variables)
❑Simplex solution method (SM)
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