Linear programming

Chapter 1:Formulation

Fedia Daami Remadi Asma Ben Yaghlane Riahi Roua Ben Ammar

Tunis Business School

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 Content
• Operations research
1

• Fields of applications
2

• Scientific steps in Operations Research

3

• Linear Programming
4

• Formulation
5 2
 Operations research:
Definitions

“Operations research is the Science of better”

(INFORMS)

 OR deals with a set of scientific approaches and tools allowing decision

makers to make the most effective decisions.

 Operations Research (OR) or decision science is the discipline of scientific

methods that can be used to make the best decisions.

 It makes it possible to rationalize, simulate, plan and optimize the

architecture and operation of production or organizational systems

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 Operations research :
Fields of applications

o Anyone who seeks to obtain optimal results under given conditions,

does OR.

o OR in practice is used to solve all types of difficult problems (from

industry or finance) from:

 Production: maximizing profits or minimizing the price.

 Transport: minimize total distance traveled according to
quantities of materials to be transported, capacity of
transporters.
 Project planning.
 Etc.,
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 Operations research:
Scientific steps

 The organizational problems encountered in a company are not

mathematical in their nature, but mathematics can make it possible to
solve them.

 Therefore, the problem must be translated into a mathematical

framework in which the techniques of OR can be applied.

collect the data No

yes
Problem Modeling Validation Solved
5

Resolution
 Linear programming:
Definitions
• Linear programming (LP) is a branch of operations research.

• A Linear Programming model: maximize or minimize a linear

function subject to a set of linear constraints

The linear model’s components

A set of decision An objective A set of

variables function constraints
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 Formulation
The Decision variables
• The unknowns that we want to determine to provide a solution to our
problem.
• There are 3 types of decision variable:
Continuous variable (≥0)
Integer variable (𝞊 ℕ)
 Binary variable ({0,1})
The Objective function (or economic function):

• The function to be optimized (maximize or minimize).

• It must be written in the form of a linear relationship between the 7
decision variables.
 Formulation
The Constraints:
• The conditions that must be respected in a problem.

• Expressed by a set of linear equality/inequality.

• The left part of each constraint should be a linear

relationship between the decision variables and the right part
should be a constant.

 The constraints also include non-negativity restrictions 8

on the variables
 Steps in formulating a LP

1. Understand the problem (often difficult in

practice).
2. Identify decision variables.
3. Formulate the constraints as linear
combinations of the decision variables.
4. Pose the objective function as a linear
combination of the decision variables.
Linear Programming Assumptions

1) The decision variable are continuous

2) The parameters are known with certainty

3) The objective function and constraints exhibit

constant return to scale
4) The decision variables are independent. There is no
interaction between it
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 Note

Any maximization problem

may be replaced by a
minimization problem:
Max f(x)“=“-Min –f(x)"
max f(x) = -min (-f(x))
Any minimization problem
may be replaced by a
maximization problem:
Min f(x)" =“-Max –f(x)"

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Linear Programming
Example 1 – Apple Profits

“I am a manager at an Apple manufacturer in

Asia. We are specialized in making iPods and
iPhones. The business objective is to
maximize profits”.

Steve Jobs just asked us how much of each

product will we be producing this week, and
what kind of profits he can expect to pocket.

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 LP Problem Formulation

• Identify the problem objective (OF)

1

• Identify the decision variables (DV)

2

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 Example 1 – Apple Profits

1. Maximize profits from

manufacturing iPods ($75)
2. Number of iPods and
iPhones to produce
and iPhones ($100)

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 Example 1 – Apple Profits

4. Write the objective function and constraints in terms

of the decision variables:
Recall:
Decision Variables I want to maximize Steve Jobs’
Let x1 be the profit! How many iPhones and
iPods should I make this week?
number of iPhones to
produce
Net profit gained from selling an
x2 be the number iPhone is $100
of iPods to Net profit gained from selling an
produce iPod is $75

Objective Function
Objective Function
Let z = profit
Coefficients 15
 LP Problem Formulation

• Identify the constraints (C)

3

• Add any implicit C (e.g.; ≥ 0)

4

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 Example 1 – Apple Profits

Total assembly time: Raw material supply:

limited to 9,000 hours per limited to 5,000 Piece of
week. Circuit Board per week
Each iPhone: 3 hours Each iPhone: 2 PCBs Each
Each iPod: 2 hours iPod:1PCB

Consumers’ demand:
minimum of 500 iPhones
and 3000 iPods per week

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 Example 1 – Apple Profits
4. Write the objective function and constraints in terms
of the decision variables, cont’d:
Technological Recall:
Coefficients • Total assembly time is limited to
3x1 + 2x2 <= 9,000 9,000 hours per week. Each iPhone
takes 3 hours to assemble and an
iPod 2 hours.
• PCB supply is limited to 5,000 PCBs
2x1 + x2 <= 5,000 per week. Each iPhone needs 2
PCBs, whereas an iPod needs only
1.
x1 >= 500 • Consumers demand a minimum of
x2 >= 3,000 500 iPhones and 3,000 iPods.

x1, x2 >= 0 Step 5: Implicit constraints (non-negative

decision variables) 18
 LP Problem Formulation

• Arrange the system of equations

in a consistent form

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Example 1 – Apple Profits Checking LP
Assumptions

Maximize: z = 100x1 + 75x2 1. Linearity

Subject to: • Proportionality
3x1 + 2x2 ≤ 9 000
2x1 + x2 ≤ 5 000
• Additivity
x1 ≥ 500 2. Divisibility
x2 ≥ 3 000
3. Certainty
x1, x2 ≥0

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 Example 2: A Transportation Problem

A production company has 3 plants 1, 2, and 3 in

different locations. The company is interested in
determining a transportation policy to monthly deliver
its product to different warehouses at four cities: 1, 2,
3, and 4. Transportation costs depend on the traveled
distance and are detailed in the table below:

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 Warehouse 1 2 3 4
Plant
1 4 6 9 13
2 16 12 15 14
3 6 5 8 7

Given that the plants produce respectively 10, 8 and 9 tons per
month and that the warehouses capacities are of 6 tons each,
Formulate the problem as a LP.

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Decision Variables
Xij : the quantity of the product to deliver from plant i to warehouse
j, i = 1, 2, 3 & j = 1, …, 4.

Objective Function
The objective has to do with minimizing the total transportation cost
from the different plants to the warehouses.

Min Z = 4X11 + 6X12 + 9X13 + 13X14 + 16X21 + 12X22 + 15X23

+ 14X24 + 6X31 + 5X32 + 8X33 + 7X34

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Constraints

 The total quantity to deliver from plant i cannot exceed the

production capacity of the plant, i=1,2,3.

X11 + X12 + X13 + X14 ≤ 10

X21 + X22 + X23 + X24 ≤ 8

X31 + X32 + X33 + X34 ≤ 9

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 The quantity to deliver to warehouse j cannot exceed its
storing capacity, j=1,2,3,4.

X11 + X21 + X31 ≤ 6

X12 + X22 + X32 ≤ 6

X13 + X23 + X33 ≤ 6

X14 + X24 + X34 ≤ 6

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Min Z = 4X11 + 6X12 + 9X13 + 13X14 + 16X21 + 12X22 +

15X23 + 14X24 + 6X31 + 5X32 + 8X33 + 7X34

X11 + X12 + X13 + X14 ≤ 10

X21 + X22 + X23 + X24 ≤ 8

X31 + X32 + X33 + X34 ≤ 9

X11 + X21 + X31 ≤ 6

X12 + X22 + X32 ≤ 6

X13 + X23 + X33 ≤ 6

X14 + X24 + X34 ≤ 6

Xij ≥ 0 avec i = 1, 2, 3 et j = 1, …, 4. 26
 Example 3: An investment Problem

The decision-maker should select among four investment

projects for the next two years. Implementation costs and

expected revenues are estimated as given in the Table below in

thousands of Tunisian Dinars, TDN

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 Annual Costs
Project Revenues
Year 1 Year 2
1 60 90 350
2 80 100 370
3 100 70 380
4 70 80 330

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 An investment Problem, continued

Formulate a LP that maximizes the total expected revenues given

that the available budget at the start of each year is of 300 000

TDN

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 Solution
 Define

1 if project i is chosen
Xi =
0 otherwise
i {1,2,3,4}

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Max Z = 350X1 + 370X2 + 380X3 + 330X4

60X1 + 80X2 + 100X3 + 70X4  300

90X1 + 100X2 + 70X3 + 80X4  300

X1 , X2 , X3 , X4  {0,1}

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Write the following conditions as linear constraints:

At least 2 of the four projects must be chosen

X1 + X2 + X3 + X4 ≥ 2
Projects 1 & 4 are mutually exclusive

X1 + X 4 ≤ 1
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Project 3 cannot be selected unless project 2 is
also selected

X3  X2

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