Linear Programming: Additional problems for practice

1. A company produces three products Brite, Glo, and Chumpy. The labour availability in the
three departments involved in manufacturing the three products is limited. The following
information provides the relevant data for planning the level of production for each product
for the upcoming period:

Brite Glo Chumpy Labour hours available / day

Contribution/unit 3 5 4 ------

Dept A, min./unit 1.00 0.35 0.50 100

Dept B, min./unit 0.30 0.20 0.40 36

Dept C, min./unit 0.20 0.50 0.30 50

Develop a linear programming model for maximizing the company’s contribution in a day.

2. The Smash Sports Company manufactures a complete line of tennis rackets in three plants.
All three types of rackets manufactured (heavy, medium, light) can be produced in any of
the three plants, which have total capacities of 550, 650, and 300 units per day, respectively.
The contribution of each type of racket to profit varies by plant, due to differing production
costs. This information is summarized as follows (in Rupees):
Contribution to Profit
Racket type Plant 1 Plant 2 Plant 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Heavy 10 8 12
Medium 7 9 8
Light 8 5 4

Sales forecasts for the three types of rackets are 700, 850, and 750 units per day. Develop a
linear programming model to maximize daily contribution of the company.

3. A medical scientist claims to have found a cure for common cold that consists of three drugs
called K, S and H. His results indicate that the minimum daily dosage for effective treatment
is 10 mg of drug K, 6 mg of drug S, and 8 mg of drug H. Two substances are readily available
for preparing pills for the drugs. Each unit of substance A contains 6 mg, 1 mg and 2 mg of
drugs K, S and H respectively. Each unit of substance B contains 2 mg, 3 mg and 2 mg of the
same drugs. Substance A costs ₹ 3 per unit and substance B costs ₹ 5 per unit. Formulate an
LP model to find the least cost combination of the two substances that will yield a pill to
contain the minimum daily recommended dosage.

4. A firm plans to purchase at least 200 quintals of scrap containing high quality metal X and
low quality metal Y. It has decided that the scrap to be purchased must contain at least 100

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 quintals of metal X and not more than 35 quintals of metal Y. The firm can purchase the
scrap from two suppliers (Metallica and Scrapco) in unlimited quantities. The percentage of
metals X and Y in terms of weight in the scrap supplied by A and B is given as follows:

Metal Metallica Scrapco

The price of Metallica’s scrap is ₹ 200 per quintal and that of Scrapco is ₹ 400 per quintal.
Develop the LP model to determine the quantity of scrap that the firm should buy from the
two suppliers so as to minimize the total purchase cost.

5. A company wishes to allocate its monthly promotional budget of ₹ 10000 among three
advertising media, i.e. Sony TV, Zee TV and CNN. The number of prospective buyers reached
by a single advertisement in each of the three media is 50000, 100000 and 75000 while the
cost per advertisement is ₹ 800, ₹ 1000 and ₹ 750, respecƟvely. The company board has
decided that it will not release more than 10, 20 and 10 advertisements on Sony TV, Zee TV
and CNN, respectively. Develop an LP model to maximize the total audience coverage.

6. A transport company has two types of trucks, Type A and Type B. Type A has a refrigerated
capacity of 20 cubic metre, and a non-refrigerated capacity of 40 cubic metre while Type B
has the same overall volume with equal sections for refrigerated and non-refrigerated stock.
A grocer needs to hire trucks for the transport of 3,000 cubic metre of refrigerated stock and
4,000 cubic metre of non-refrigerated stock. The cost per kilometre of a Type A is ₹ 30, and ₹
40 for Type B. How many trucks of each type should the grocer rent to achieve the minimum
total cost?
7. A store wants to liquidate 200 of its shirts and 100 pairs of pants from last season. They have
decided to put together two offers, A and B. Offer A is a package of one shirt and a pair of
pants which will sell for ₹ 300. Offer B is a package of three shirts and a pair of pants, which
will sell for ₹ 500. The store does not want to sell less than 20 packages of Offer A and less
than 10 of Offer B. How many packages of each do they have to sell to maximize the money
generated from the promotion?
8. Ed Silver Dog Food Company wishes to introduce a new brand of dog biscuits composed of
chicken- and liver-flavoured biscuits that meet certain nutritional requirements. The liver-
flavoured biscuits contain 1 unit of nutrient A and 2 units of nutrient B; the chicken-
flavoured biscuits contain 1 unit of nutrient A and 4 units of nutrient B. According to medicall
requirements, there must be at least 40 units of nutrient A and 60 units of nutrient B in a
package of the new mix. In addition, the company has decided that there can be no more
than 15 liver-flavoured biscuits in a package. If it costs ₹ 10 to make 1 liver-flavoured biscuit
and ₹ 20 to make 1 chicken-flavoured, what is the optimal product mix for a package of the
biscuits to minimize the firm’s cost?