S. G. M.

English Medium College of Commerce and Management (SEMCOM)

(A Constituent College of Charutar Vidya Mandal University)
Vallabh Vidyanagar

STUDY NOTES

Class SYBBA / SYITM (A & B) – 4th Semester

Course Operations Research
Unit 02– Linear Programing (Part A)
Course Facilitator Dr Ajayraj Vyas
Academic Year 2022 - 2023

INTRODUCTION

A model, which is used for optimum allocation of scarce or limited resources to competing
products or activities under such assumptions as certainty, linearity, fixed technology, and
constant profit per unit, is linear programming. Linear Programming is one of the most versatile,
powerful and useful techniques for making managerial decisions. Linear programming technique may
be used for solving broad range of problems arising in business, government, industry, hospitals,
libraries, etc.

Whenever we want to allocate the available limited resources for various competing activities for
achieving our desired objective, the technique that helps us is LINEAR PROGRAMMING. As a
decision-making tool, it has demonstrated its value in various fields such as production, finance,
marketing, research and development and personnel management. Determination of optimal
product mix (a combination of products, which gives maximum profit), transportation schedules,
Assignment problem and many more. In this chapter, let us discuss about various types of linear
programming models.

What is Linear Programming?

Linear programming (LP) may be defined as the problem of maximizing or minimizing a linear function
that is subjected to linear constraints. The constraints may be equalities or inequalities. The
optimization problems involve the calculation of profit and loss. Linear programming problems are an
important class of optimization problems, that helps to find the feasible region and optimize the
solution in order to have the highest or lowest value of the function.

In other words, linear programming is considered as an optimization method to maximize or minimize

the objective function of the given mathematical model with the set of some requirements which are
represented in the linear relationship. The main aim of the linear programming problem is to find the
optimal solution.

Linear Programming Examples

Suppose a postman has to deliver 6 letters in a day from the post office (located at A) to different
houses (U, V, W, Y, Z). The distance between the houses is indicated on the lines as given in the image.
If the postman wants to find the shortest route that will enable him to deliver the letters as well as
save on fuel then it becomes a linear programming problem. Thus, LP will be used to get the optimal
solution which will be the shortest route in this example.
PROPERTIES OF LINEAR PROGRAMMING MODEL

Any linear programming model (problem) must have the following properties:

(a) The relationship between variables and constraints must be linear.

(b) The model must have an objective function.

(c) The model must have structural constraints.

(d) The model must have non-negativity constraint.

Linear Programming Formula

A linear programming problem will consist of decision variables, an objective function, constraints,
and non-negative restrictions. The decision variables, x, and y, decide the output of the LP problem
and represent the final solution. The objective function, Z, is the linear function that needs to be
optimized (maximized or minimized) to get the solution. The constraints are the restrictions that are
imposed on the decision variables to limit their value. The decision variables must always have a non-
negative value which is given by the non-negative restrictions. The general formula of a linear
programming problem is given below:

Objective Function: Z = ax + by

Constraints: cx + dy ≤ e, fx + gy ≤ h. The inequalities can also be "≥"

Non-negative restrictions: x ≥ 0, y ≥ 0

How to Formulate / Solve Linear Programming Problems?

The most important part of solving linear programming problem is to first formulate the problem using
the given data. The following steps helps in formulation and solution of linear programming problems
are given below:

 Step 1: Identify the decision variables.

 Step 2: Formulate the objective function. Check whether the function needs to be minimized or
maximized.
 Step 3: Write down the constraints.
  Step 4: Ensure that the decision variables are greater than or equal to 0. (Non-negative
restraint)
 Step 5: Solve the linear programming problem using either the simplex or graphical method.

FORMULATION OF LPP

EXAMPLE No: 01

Consider a chocolate manufacturing company that produces only two types of chocolate – A and B.
Both the chocolates require Milk and Choco only. To manufacture each unit of A and B, the following
quantities are required:

 Each unit of A requires 1 unit of Milk and 3 units of Choco

 Each unit of B requires 1 unit of Milk and 2 units of Choco

The company kitchen has a total of 5 units of Milk and 12 units of Choco. On each sale, the company
makes a profit of

 Rs 6 per unit A sold

 Rs 5 per unit B sold.

Now, the company wishes to maximize its profit. How many units of A and B should it produce
respectively?

Solution to Example No: 01

The first thing is to represent the problem in a tabular form for better understanding.

Milk Choco Profit per unit

A 1 3 Rs 6

B 1 2 Rs 5

Total 5 12

Let the total number of units produced by A be = X

Let the total number of units produced by B be = Y

Now, the total profit is represented by Z

The total profit the company makes is given by the total number of units of A and B produced
multiplied by its per-unit profit of Rs 6 and Rs 5 respectively.

Profit: Max Z = 6X+5Y

which means we have to maximize Z.

The company will try to produce as many units of A and B to maximize the profit. But the resources
Milk and Choco are available in a limited amount.
As per the above table, each unit of A and B requires 1 unit of Milk. The total amount of Milk available
is 5 units. To represent this mathematically,

X+Y ≤ 5

Also, each unit of A and B requires 3 units & 2 units of Choco respectively. The total amount of Choco
available is 12 units. To represent this mathematically,

3X+2Y ≤ 12

Also, the values for units of A can only be integers.

So we have two more constraints, X ≥ 0 & Y ≥ 0

For the company to make maximum profit, the above inequalities have to be satisfied.

This is called formulating a real-world problem into a mathematical model.

EXAMPLE No: 02
Company produces two types of paints, type A & type B. It uses two types of raw materials, M1 & M2. The
following table provides the data of the problem.
Tons of raw materials Max daily
Type A Type B availability
M1 6 4 24
M2 1 2 6
Profit/ton (Rs.) 5000 4000
A market study indicates that the daily demand for type A paint cannot exceed 3 tons & type B paint cannot
exceed 2 tons. Company wants to determine the best mix of paints that maximizes its profit. Formulate as LPP.
Solution to Example No: 02

Decision variables:

: Quantity in tons of Type A paint to produce daily,

: Quantity in tons of Type B paint to produce daily.

Objective function
Company wants to maximize its profit to be obtained from the type A and type B paints to produce
daily. The unit contributions to profit are respectively 5,000 Rs and 4,000 Rs, from the table above.
Thus, the objective function could be written as:

Constraints
The problem constraints are related to restrictions in raw materials usage and demand. For materials
usage, the total material to be used in both products cannot exceed what is available from each type
of M1 & M2. These can be easily formulated as

From the demand constraints can obviously be expressed as

An implicit restriction states that the quantities of paints to be produced cannot be negative.
That is, , and .

Thus, the obtained LPP is given by:

subject to

&