Linear Programming

GRAPHICAL METHOD
 Farming a Option…..

Say you own a 500 acre farm. On this farm

you can grow wheat, barley, corn or some
combination of the 3. You have a limited supply
of fertilizer and pesticide, both of which are
needed (in different quantities) for each crop
grown. Let’s say wheat sells at tk.700 a bushel,
barley is tk.300, and corn is tk. 350.

So, how many of each crop should

you grow to maximize your profit?
What is Linear Programming?
 Cement Production Option…..
Say you importing 400 tons clinker to
produce cement. From this amount of clinker
you want to produce three different categories of
cement. You have a limited supply of three
different chemicals (in different quantities) for
cement production. Let’s say cement type1 sells
at tk.330 a bag, type II is tk.320, and type III is
tk. 350. At the same time your market demands
for these types of cement is different.

So, how many of each cement should

you grow to maximize your profit?
 Still Thinking…………
What is Linear Programming?
What is Linear Programming?
A mathematical tool for maximizing or
minimizing a quantity (usually profit or
cost of production), subject to certain
constraints.

Of all computations and decisions made by

management in business, 50-90% of those
involve linear programming.
 Background on
Linear Programming
 As a field of mathematics, LP is still a small child (in math
years)
 Developed by Leonid Kantorovich
around the time of WWII
 Further developed over following
decades
 Today, easily the most commonly used
field for optimization
 Economics, business management,
transportation, technology, planning, production, …

the list goes on…

 Maximizing Profit

Problem where a limited Production of…

number of resources
are used to produce a
combination of  Pretty much anything
products to maximize
profit from the sale
 Maximizing Problems consist of…
1. Resources
2. Products
3. Recipes
4. Profit
5. Objective
 Setting Up
A toy manufacturer can produce skateboards and
dolls. Both require the precious resource of
plastic, of which there are 60 units available.
Skateboards take five units of plastic and
make $1 profit. Dolls take two units of
plastic and make $0.55 profit.
The company wants to make at least 1 doll and at
least 1 skateboard.
What is the number of dolls and skateboards the
company can produce to maximize profit?
 Setting Up Mixture Problems

First identify components of the problem:

1. Variables (Products)
2. Constraints (Resources and Recipes)
3. Profits
4. Objective – Maximize profit
Make Mixture Chart or Formulas
Products Resources Profit
Plastic (60)

Skateboards 5 $1.00
(x units)
Dolls 2 $0.55
(y units)

2 Groups of Equations:
- Profit Equation (profit equation)
- Constraint Inequalities

P= x + $0.55y

With these, create Feasible Region

Feasible Region – region which consists of all
possible solution choices for a particular problem

Using the constraint equation we get the following

graphs:

Constraints:
5x + 2y ≤ 60
x>1
y>1
 Corner Point Principle

Which point is optimal?

Corner Point Principle

The maximal value always
corresponds to a corner point
 Corner Point Principle

Plug in corner points to profit

formula:

P= x + $0.55y
 Quick Practice
A clothing company has 100 yards of cloth and produces shirts (x units) and
vests (y units). Shirts require 10 units and have profit value of $5, while vests
require 4 units and have profit value of $4.
What is the optimal production solution?
Steps 3 & 4:
Feasible Region & Corner Points
Profit Formula
( 0, 25 )
$5.00x + $4.00y = P

Constraints:
10x + 4y ≤ 100
x>0
y>0

( 0, 0 )
( 10, 0 )
 Quick Practice
A clothing company has 100 yards of cloth and produces shirts (x units) and
vests (y units). Shirts require 10 units and have profit value of $5, while vests
require 4 units and have profit value of $4.
What is the optimal production solution?
Steps 3 & 4:
Feasible Region & Corner Points

( 0, 25 )
Point Calculation of Profit Formula
$5.00x + $4.00y = P
(0, 0) $5.00 (0) + $4.00 (0) = $0.00

(0, 25) $5.00 (0) + $4.00 (25) = $100.00

(10, 0) $5.00 (10) + $4.00(0) = $50.00

( 0, 0 )
( 10, 0 )
 Quick Practice
What if the company decides to also put a “non-zero constraint” on all production?
Must produce at least 3 shirts and 10 vests.
Constraints become:
10x + 4y ≤ 100 …
x≥3
y ≥ 10
Feasible Region becomes: Corner Points:
Point Calculation of Profit Formula
$5.00x + $4.00y = P
( 3, 17.5 ) (3, 10) $5.00 (3) + $4.00 (10) = $55.00
(3, 17.5) $5.00 (3) + $4.00 (17) = $83.00
( 6, 10 ) (6, 10) $5.00 (6) + $4.00(10) = $70.00
( 3, 10 )

Great Job!
 Linear Programming
 Find the minimum and maximum values by
graphing the inequalities and finding the
vertices of the polygon formed.
 Substitute the vertices into the function and
find the largest and smallest values.
 8 1 ≤ x ≤5
7

3
y≥2
2
y≤x+3
1

1 2 3 4 5
 Linear Programming

 The vertices of the quadrilateral formed are:

(1, 2) (1, 4) (5, 2) (5, 8)
 Plug these points into the function P = 3x - 2y
 Linear Programming

P = 3x - 2y
 P(1, 2) = 3(1) - 2(2) = 3 - 4 = -1
 P(1, 4) = 3(1) - 2(4) = 3 - 8 = -5
 P(5, 2) = 3(5) - 2(2) = 15 - 4 = 11
 P(5, 8) = 3(5) - 2(8) = 15 - 16 = -1
 Linear Programming

f(1, 4) = -5 minimum
f(5, 2) = 11 maximum
 Summary of Graphical/Pictorial Method
 1. Identify resources and products
 2. Make a Mixture Chart showing resources,
products, recipes for creating products, profit of each
product, and the amount of each resource on hand.
If problem has minimums, include that as well
 3. Assign unknowns, x or y, to each product. Use the
mixture chart to write down the resource constraints,
the minimum constraints, and the profit formula
 4. Graph the line corresponding to each resource
constraint and determine which side of the line is in
the feasible solution (≥ or ≤ )
 5. Find the corner points and evaluate the profit
formula at these points
 Mixture Problems with 2 Resources

 Consider the toy manufacturer and now has a

second constraint of time.
 Suppose there are 360 minutes of available labor.
 One skateboard requires 15 minutes
 One doll requires 18 minutes
 Still maintain zero minimum constraints
 New Mixture Chart
RESOURCES
Containers of Plastic Minutes
60 360 PROFIT

Skateboard 5 15 (1)$1.00
s
PRODUCTS

(x units)
Dolls 2 18 (1)$0.55
(y units)
 Resource Constraints

 5x + 2y ≤ 60 containers of plastic
 15x + 18y ≤ 360 minutes available

 Profit Formula $1x + $0.55y

 Graph two lines and find the intersection

 Find New Corner Points

 (0,0) (12,0) (0,20)

 Find the intersection point
 5x+2y=60
 15x+18y=360
 Solve for one variable
 18(5x+2y=60) -> 90x+36y=1080
 -2(15x+18y=360) -> -30x-36y=-720
60x = 360
x=6
5(6)+2y=60
y = 15
(6,15) is last point
 Evaluate
 Evaluate your new points in your profit formula
$1x +$.55y
 (0,0) = $0
 (12,0) = 12 + 0 = $12
 (0,20) = 0 + .55(20) = $11
 (6,15) = 6 + .55(15) = $14.25

 So the optimal production policy is to make 6

skateboards and 15 dolls for a profit of $14.25
 Mixing Two Juices

 A juice manufacturer produces and sells two fruit

beverages: Cranapple and Appleberry
 1 gal of Cranapple is 3qts Cranberry Juice and
1qt Apple Juice
 1 gal of Appleberry is 2qts Apple Juice and 2qts
Cranberry Juice
 Cranapple makes a profit of 2cents/gallon
 Appleberry makes a profit of 5cents/gallon
 Constraints
 You have 200 quarts of Cranberry Juice
available and 100 quarts of Apple Juice
available, how many gallons of each drink
mixture should we make?
 Cranberry constraint 3x+2y ≤ 200
 Apple Juice constraint 2x+2y ≤ 100
X = gallons of cranapple juice
 Y = gallons of appleberry juice
 With Minimum Constraints

 Want x (gallons of cranapple juice) ≥ 20

 Want y (gallons of appleberry juice) ≥ 10

 Get corner points of (20, 10) (20, 40) (50, 25)

(60,10)
 Evaluate in profit formula 2x+5y
 (20,40) is optimal point
 But substituting (20,40) into our cranberry juice
constraint, we find we only use 3(20)+2(40)=140 of our
allotted 200 quarts available. So we have 60 quarts of
surplus.
 Soperhaps sell cranberry juice separately or purchase more
apple juice if it’s profitable.
 Complex Regions

 Sometimes there are so many corner points of a

feasible region that multiple calculations are needed to
determine the coordinates and profits for each one.
Computing the profit for every corner point for even
the fastest computer could be impossible
 Also, it is not possible to visualize the feasible region
as a part of two-dimensional space where there are
more than two products. Each product is represented
by an unknown, and each unknown is represented by a
dimension of space. If we have 50 products, we would
need 50 dimensions and we couldn’t visualize such a
region.