Problem Set - 1

Formulation Exercises

November 3, 2021

1. Odisha State MoBus Depot runs buses as 24hr service. Each bus can operate for 8 hrs successively,
and then it is directed to workshop for maintenance and fuel. The minimum number of buses required
fluctuate with the time intervals. The desired number of buses during different time interval are given
in the following table:

Time Intervals Minimum number of buses required

5 AM - 9 AM 5
9 AM - 1 PM 13
1 PM - 5 PM 11
5 PM - 9 PM 14
9 PM - 1 AM 4
1 AM - 5 AM 3

(a) The depot keeps in view the reduction of air pollution and smog problem. It is required to deter-
mine the number of buses to operate during different shifts that will meet the minimum requirement
while minimizing the total number of daily buses in operation.
(b) The planner is now trying options of running a bus for either 8-hrs or 12-hrs shifts. If a bus runs
for 12 hrs, the driver must be paid for the extra hours at 150% of the regular hourly pay. Do you
recommend the use of 12-hrs shifts?

2. On most U.S. university campuses, students are contracted by academic departments to do errands,
such as answering the phone and typing. The need for such service fluctuates during work hours
(8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.). In one department, the minimum number of students needed is 2 between
8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m., 4 between 10:01 a.m. and 11:00 a.m., 3 between 11:01 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.,
and 2 between 1:01 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. Each student is allotted 3 consecutive hours (except for those
starting at 3:01, who work for 2 hours, and those who start at 4:01, who work for 1 hour). Because
of their flexible schedule, students can usually report to work at any hour during the work day, except
that no student wants to start working at lunch time (12:00 noon). Develop the LP model.
3. Toolco has contracted with AutoMate to supply their automotive discount stores with wrenches and
chisels. AutoMate’s weekly demand consists of at least 1570 wrenches and 1250 chisels. Toolco
cannot produce all the requested units with its present one-shift capacity, and must use overtime and
possibly subcontract with other tool shops. The result is an increase in the production cost per unit, as
shown in the following table. Market demand restricts the ratio of chisels to wrenches to at least 2:1.
Formulate the problem as a linear program and explain why the validity of the model is dependent on

the fact that the unit production cost is an increasing function of the production quantity.

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4. A warehouse has a capacity of 2000 units. The manager of the warehouse buys and sells the stock
of potatoes over a period of 6 weeks to make profit. Assume that in the jth week the same unit price
Pj holds for both purchase and sale. In addition, there is unit cost of 15 Rs as weekly expenses for
holding stock. The warehouse is empty at the beginning and is required to be empty after the sixth
week. How should the manager operate? The major activities involve buying, selling, and holding
the stock for a week.
5. Bank One is in the process of devising a loan policy that involves a maximum of $12 million. The
following table provides the pertinent data about available loans. Bad debts are unrecoverable and

produce no interest revenue. Competition with other financial institutions dictates the allocation of
at least 40% of the funds to farm and commercial loans. To assist the housing industry in the region,
home loans must equal at least 50% of the personal, car, and home loans. The bank limits the overall
ratio of bad debts on all loans to at most 4%.
6. OilCo is building a refinery to produce four products: diesel, gasoline, lubricants, and jet fuel. The
minimum demand (in bbl/day) for each of these products is 14,000, 30,000, 10,000, and 8000, respec-
tively. Iraq and Dubai are under contract to ship crude to OilCo. Because of the production quotas
specified by OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries), the new refinery can receive
at least 40% of its crude from Iraq and the remaining amount from Dubai. OilCo predicts that the
demand and crude oil quotas will remain steady over the next 10 years. The specifications of the two
crude oils lead to different product mixes. One barrel of Iraq crude yields .2 bbl of diesel, .25 bbl of
gasoline, .1 bbl of lubricant, and .15 bbl of jet fuel. The corresponding yields from Dubai crude are
.1, .6, .15, and .1, respectively. OilCo needs to determine the minimum capacity of the refinery (in
bbl/day). Formulate the problem as an LP.
7. XIM Bhubaneswar has to organize its Annual Conference for next five days. There is an arrangement
of dinner for every invited team. The requirement of cotton napkins during these five days is

Day 1 2 3 4 5
Numbers of napkins Required 80 50 100 80 150

Accordingly, a caterer has been requested to supply the napkins according to the above schedule.
After the festival is over caterer has no use of napkins. A new napkin costs 2 Rs. The washing
charges for a used napkin is 0.5 Rs by ordinary services and 1 Re, if express service is used. A
napkin given for washing by ordinary service is returned third day, while under express service it is
return next day. How the caterer should meet the requirement of the organizers so that the total cost
is minimized.
8. Paper cutting machines are available to cut standard news print rolls into the subrolls. Each standard
roll is of 180 cm width and a number of them must be cut to produce smaller subrolls at the current
orders for 30 of width 70 cm, 60 of width 50 cm and 40 of width 30 cm. Formulate the problem so as
to minimize the amount of wastes. Ignoring the recycling or other uses for the trim, assume that the
length of each required subroll is the same as that of the standard roll.
9. Two alloys, A and B are made from four different metals, I, II, III, and IV, according to the following
specifications:

Alloy Specification Selling Price (Rs/ton)

at most 80% of I
A at least 30% of II 200
at least 50% of IV
between 40% and 60% of II
B at least 30% of III 300
at most 70% of IV

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 The four metals, in turn, are extracted from three different ores with the following data:

Ore Max Quantity I II III IV Others Purchase Price (Rs/Ton)

1 1000 20 10 30 30 10 30
2 2000 10 20 30 30 10 40
3 3000 5 5 70 20 0 50

How much of each alloy should be produced to maximize the profit. Formulate the problem as a LP
model.

10. Hi-V produces three types of canned juice drinks, A, B, and C, using fresh strawberries, grapes, and
apples. The daily supply is limited to 200 tons of strawberries, 90 tons of grapes, and 150 tons of
apples. The cost per ton of strawberries, grapes, and apples is $210, $110, and $100, respectively.
Each ton makes 1500 lb of strawberry juice, 1200 lb of grape juice, and 1000 lb of apple juice. Drink
A is a 1:1 mix of strawberry and apple juice. Drink B is 1:1:2 mix of strawberry, grape, and apple
juice. Drink C is a 2:3 mix of grape and apple juice. All drinks are canned in 16-oz (1 lb) cans. The
price per can is $1.15, $1.25, and $1.20 for drinks A, B, and C. Develop an LP model to determine
the optimal production mix of the three drinks.

11. Suppose n different food items are available at the market and the selling price for the jth food is
C j per unit. Moreover, there are m basic nutritional ingredients for the human body and minimum bi
units of the ith ingredient are required to achieve a balanced diet for good health. In addition, a study
shows that each unit of the jth food contains ai j units of the ith ingredients. A dietitian of a large
group may face a problem of determining the most economical diet that satisfies the basic nutritional
requirement for good health. Formulate the problem so that problem of dietitian is solved.

12. A small manufacturing plant produces two products, A and B. Each product must be worked on by a
bank of CNC lathe machines and then, in succession, by a group of CNC milling machines. Product
A requires 1 hr on CNC lathe machines and 3 hrs on CNC milling machines. Product B requires 5
hrs on CNC lathe machines and 1 hr on CNC milling machines. A total of 10000 hrs is available per
week on CNC lathe machines and 7000 hrs on CNC milling machines. The net profit is 5 Rs per unit
for product A and 10 Rs per unit for product B. Formulate the problem so as to maximize the weekly
profit. Assume that all the quantities manufactured are disposed off.
13. OMFED has two plants each of which produces and supplies two products: Milk and Butter. Plants
can each work up to 16 hours a day. In Plant-I, it takes 3 hours to prepare from powder and pack
1000 liters of milk and 1 hour to prepare and pack 100 kg of butter. In Plant II, it takes 2 hours to
prepare and pack 1000 liters of milk and 1.5 hours to prepare and pack 100 kg of butter. In Plant-I,
it costs 15, 000 Rs to prepare and pack 1000 liters of milk and 28, 000 Rs to prepare and pack 100
kg of butter, whereas these costs are 18, 000 Rs and 26, 000 Rs, respectively for Plant-II. OMFED is
obliged to produce daily at least 10, 000 liters of milk and 800 kg of butter. Formulate this as LPP to
find as to how should the company organize its production so that the required amount of the products
be obtained at minimum cost.

14. A gambler plays a game that requires dividing bet money among four choices. The game has three
outcomes. The following table gives the corresponding gain or loss per dollar for the different options
of the game. The gambler has a total of $1500, which may be played only once. The exact outcome

of the game is not known a priori. Because of this uncertainty, the gambler’s strategy is to maximize
the minimum return produced by the three outcomes. How should the gambler allocate the $1500
among the four choices?

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15. Consider the problem of assigning aircraft to four routes according to the following data

The associated costs, including the penalties for losing customers because of space unavailability,
are:

Determine the optimum allocation of aircraft to routes, and determine the associated number of trips.