Management Science (G1) Group members:

Danish Suleman
Jasper Goh Wei Tze
Kim Chin Dee
Loh Yun Qing
Content Page
1.
2.
3.
4.

Introduction
Application

2.1
2.2

Objective Function
Constraints

Solution
External influences

4.1
4.2
4.3

A change in the route network

A change in government policies
A change in disposal structure

5.

Excel perspective

1.

Introduction

PAWV Power and Light has contracted with a waste disposal firm to have nuclear
waste from its nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania disposed of at a
government-operated nuclear waste disposal site in Nevada. The waste must be
shipped in reinforced container trucks across country, and all travel must be
confined to the interstate highway system. The government insists that the
waste transport must be completed within 42 hours and that the trucks travel
through the least populated areas possible.

Along with this problem, we were given two pieces of information. Firstly, a table
of the populations in each of the cities the waste disposal truck might be passing
through. Secondly, a network map that details the number of hours taken to
travel for each route between the cities that the truck might take.
An analysis of this question brings to us 2 constraints unique to this problem; the
constraint that the total time taken for the truck to reach the Nevada site from
Pittsburgh must be less than 42 hours, and that the level of population exposed
to the truck must be minimized. The end objective of this problem is to find the
route in which the disposal truck should take, while meeting the aforementioned
requirements.
This is a transshipment model, which is an extension of the transportation model
in which intermediate transshipment points are added between the sources and
destinations. In this case, items (nuclear waste) are transported from sources
(Nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania) through transshipment points on to
destinations (government-operated nuclear waste disposal site in Nevada).

2.

Application

The application of the management science method would suggest that we use
the formulation of a linear program (LP). That is to say, the creation of an
objective function along with constraints that dictate the limits of the objective
function.
The complete linear programming model created for the purposes of this
problem, including the objective function, is summarized as follows on the next
page:
Every LP should take into account every piece of related information for the
problem to be resolved, including the nature of the problem itself. That being
said, each component of the LP we created has factored in a portion of the
problem which will be explained here.
2.1

Objective Function

The objective function, Z, is created to account for the minimization requirement

of the population exposure. The reason why we use it as the objective function is

because the purpose of the problem is to find a combination of the route such
that the resultant Z (Which is the population exposure) will be reduced to the
minimum.
With that in mind, the coefficient of each variable is therefore the amount of
population that will be exposed as a result of travelling through that route. The
value of which can be taken with reference from the table of population in each
metropolitan areas provided by the question.
The decision variables will be the route taken by the disposal truck and this value
will be binary (1 or 0, where 1 would mean that the route is taken, 0 would mean
otherwise). A further elaboration on this will be provided later on as its binary
nature is accounted for as a constraint.
2.2

Constraints

The first group of constraints takes into account the nature of a trans-shipment
problem, the principle where the amount of input is equal to the amount of
output and no input remains at the trans-shipment points. The trans-shipment
points in this case are the metropolitan area in which the truck might be
bypassing. By logic, the truck will not leave any disposals in each of the points
that it bypasses (i.e. the amount of waste transported in must also be
transported out), which explains why this constraint is required. Without this
constraint, the very nature of this problem will not even be taken into account,
and an absurd solution will be given, where the truck simply teleports to
another location without moving through a preceding route.
The second group of constraints relate to the nature of this problem as well,
where one truck is dispatched from Pittsburgh to the Nevada site. That the first
group of (4) accessible routes have only one route taken in total indicates that
only one truck is moving out from origin. That the last group of (2) nodes that
has direct access to the end point have only one route taken in total indicates
that only one truck enters the end-point. Essentially, the supply of trucks is 1
and the demand of trucks is 1. Without this constraint, the answer will also be
absurd, where to minimize the amount of population exposure, we simply do not
send any trucks at all.
The third constraint relates to the requirement that the total time taken to travel
from Pittsburgh to the Nevada site must be less than or equal to 42. That being

said, the requirement acts as a limit in which the truck has on travelling between
the 2 points, without which, the truck is free to simply select the route in which
the level of population exposed is the lowest without taking into account the
travel time. This explains why the requirement is incorporated as a constraint.
That being said, the coefficient of each variable in this constraint is the time
taken to travel on that route, while the variable itself is about whether the route
is taken or not, which is again binary in nature.
The last group of constraints is required due to the context of the question. The
integer constraint is due to the fact that you cannot send a partial truck, you
either send 1, 2 or any other whole number of trucks but you cannot send half a
truck or three quarters of a truck. The non-negativity constraint is to take into
account the fact that it would not be logical to send a negative amount of trucks.

3.

Solution

After processing through the solver using Excel for the problem we have, we
arrived at the following conclusions for a solution within the limits of the
constraints furnished:

The route to be travelled will be 1-2-11-15-16-19-23-28-31-33. That is:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Columbus
3. Indianapolis
4. Springfield
5. Davenport/Moline/Rock Island
6. Des Moines
7. Omaha
8. Cheyenne
9. Salt Lake City
10.Nevada Site

As shown below in Diagram 1, which is the network diagram of the optimal

solution.

The travel time is 40.7 hours, which is within the requirement of 42 hours
The population exposure is minimized at 7.03 (Million).

Diagram 1
4.

External influences

The world is an ever-changing climate and the situation in which a company finds
itself in is constantly shifting. That being said, this report further explores what
are the possible effects of some real world happenings on our solution and LP.
While we try to be extensive in our coverage, it is not possible to account for the
myriad possibilities, thus we include only the more common possible occurrences
which are by no means exhaustive.
4.1

A change in the route network

This can be a result of a natural disaster destroying a route rendering it

unusable, or the formation of a new metropolitan area in which the truck can
now bypass with a new route. When this happens, our network of routes will
change, thus our solution might be affected.
Where our solution and LP is concerned, the things affected is mainly the
constraint related to the 42 hours travel time as well as our objective function,
even more so on the latter. The significance of the constraint remains the same,
except a variable in it could be removed because of it being destroyed or a new

variable introduced due to its creation. Our objective function will change
accordingly where a variable could be removed or introduced to reflect the
possibility of the route being used or excluded from use. This change might
result in a different solution.
In certain cases, the constraint related to the supply and demand of the
trucks might be affected if the related route is directly connected to the
destination or the origin. However, the same principle and logic still applies.
4.2

A change in government policies

Should the government decide to not insist that the waste transport be
completed within 42 hours, the right side of the inequality for the related
constraint will also change accordingly. The solution might change depending on
how much change is effected by the government.
If the government no longer stipulates that the amount of exposure to the
general population be kept to the minimum, then an entirely new LP will have to
be drafted to another problem altogether, perhaps in the context of cost
minimization or travel time minimization.
4.3

A change in disposal structure

Should new disposal sites or new nuclear power plants be introduced, the
demand and supply constraints will also be affected. There will be an
extension of the demand constraint equation for the introduction of a new
disposal site and an additional supply constraint equation for each new nuclear
power plant introduced.
When this happens, new routes will also naturally be established, resulting in
what happens as accounted for in the first part of this section. The resultant
solution might therefore change accordingly.

5.

Excel perspective

As attached are the excel sheets used for the purposes of this problem: