UNIVERSITY OF KELANIYA

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS
ACADEMIC YEAR 2023/2024
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONOURS) DEGREE
AMAT 41423 - L INEAR & N ON -L INEAR P ROGRAMMING

Semester I Tutorial 02

1. Electra produces four types of electric motors, each on a separate assembly line. The respec-
tive capacities of the lines are 500, 500, 800, and 750 motors per day. Type 1 motor uses 8
units of a certain electronic component, type 2 motor uses 5 units, type 3 motor uses 4 units,
and type 4 motor uses 6 units. The supplier of the component can provide 8000 units a day.
The prices per motor for the respective types are $60, $40, $25, and $30.

(a) Determine the optimum daily production mix.

(b) The present production schedule meets Electra’s needs. However, because of competi-
tion, Electra may need to lower the price of type 2 motor. What is the largest reduction
that can be implemented without changing the present production schedule?
(c) Electra has decided to slash the price of all motor types by 25%. Use sensitivity analysis
to determine if the optimum solution remains unchanged.
(d) Currently, type 4 motor is not produced. By how much should its price be increased to
be included in the production schedule?

2. Consider the problem

Maximize z = x1 + x2
subject to
2x1 + x2 ≤ 6
x1 + 2x2 ≤ 6
x1 + x2 ≥ 0

(a) Show that the optimal basic solution includes both x1 and x2 and that the feasibility
ranges for the two constraints, considered one at a time, are −3 ≤ D1 ≤ 6 and −3 ≤
D2 ≤ 6.
(b) Suppose that the two resources are increased simultaneously by ∆ > 0 each. First, show
that the basic solution remains feasible for all ∆ > 0. Next, show that the 100% rule
will confirm feasibility only if the increase is in the range 0 < ∆ ≤ 3 units. Otherwise,
the rule fails for 3 < ∆ ≤ 6 and does not apply for ∆ > 6.

Continued...

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3. The Gutchi Company manufactures purses, shaving bags, and backpacks. The construction
of the three products requires leather and synthetics, with leather being the limiting raw
material. The production process uses two types of skilled labor: sewing and finishing. The
following table gives the availability of the resources, their usage by the three products, and
the prices per unit.

Resource requirements per unit

Resource Daily availability
Purse Bag Backpack
Leather (ft2 ) 2 1 3 42
Sewing (hr) 2 1 2 40
Finishing (hr) 1 0.5 1 45
Price ($) 24 22 45

Formulate the problem as a linear program, and find the optimum solution. Next, indicate
whether the following changes in the resources will keep the current solution feasible.
For the cases where feasibility is maintained, determine the new optimum solution (values of
the variables and the objective function).

(a) Available leather is increased to 45 ft2 .

(b) Available leather is decreased by 1 ft2 .
(c) Available sewing hours are changed to 38 hrs.
(d) Available sewing hours are changed to 46 hrs.
(e) Available finishing hours are decreased to 15 hrs.
(f) Available finishing hours are increased to 50 hrs.
(g) Would you recommend hiring an additional sewing worker at $15 an hour?

4. Consider the following LP:

Maximize z = 3x1 + 2x2 + 3x3
subject to
2x1 + x2 + x3 ≤ 2
3x1 + 4x2 + 2x3 ≥ 8
x1 , x2 , x3 ≥ 0

The optimal simplex tableau at the end of Phase I is

Basic x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 R Solution
r −5 0 −2 −1 −4 0 0
x2 2 1 1 0 1 0 2
R −5 0 −2 −1 −4 1 0

Continued...

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 Explain why the nonbasic variables x1 , x3 , x4 , and x5 can never assume positive values at the
end of Phase II. Hence, conclude that their columns can be dropped before we start Phase II.
In essence, the removal of these variables reduces the constraint equations of the problem to
x2 = 2 – meaning that it is not necessary to carry out Phase II in this problem.
5. (a) Solve the following linear programming problem using any method of your choice.
Max Z = 3x + 4y
Subject to
x+y ≥6
x−y ≥4
x + 2y ≤ 3
x ≥ 0, y ≥ 0

(b) Use two-phase simplex algorithm to solve the following LP problem.

Min Z = x + y
Subject to
2x + y ≥ 4
x + 7y ≥ 7
x, y ≥ 0

(c) A factory produces three types of products: A, B, and C. The goal is to maximize profit
by optimizing the production of these products. The profit contributions are as follows:
$1 for each unit of Product A, $3 for each unit of Product B, and $1 for each unit of
Product C. Each unit of Product A requires 1 unit of raw material, and each unit of
Product B requires 4 units of raw material, while Product C does not require any raw
material. The total availability of raw materials is 12 units. In terms of labor, producing
1 unit of Product A consumes 3 labor hours, producing 1 unit of Product B consumes
6 labor hours, and producing 1 unit of Product C consumes 4 labor hours. The total
available labor is 48 hours.

The optimal tableau is presented in the following table, where x1 , x2 , x3 represent the number
of units produced of Products A, B, and C respectively, and s1 and s2 are slack variables for
the raw material and labor hour constraints respectively.

z x1 x2 x3 s1 s2 rhs Basic Variable

1 1/24 0 0 3/8 1/4 33/2 33/2
0 1/4 1 0 1/4 0 3 x2 = 3
0 3/8 0 1 −3/8 1/4 30/4 x3 = 30/4

Continued...

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Using this optimal tableau, answer the following questions:

(i) At what profit level of the Product A does the current basis remain optimal?
If Product A contributes $2 for each unit, what would be the new optimal solution to
the above LP problem?
(ii) What quantity of available raw material would allow the current basis to remain opti-
mal?
If 34 units of raw materials were available, what would be the factory’s profit?

******* End *******