LP PROBLEM SET 2

OR FORMULATION PROBLEMS
These problems are adapted from the following text books and are for classroom discussion only.
1.
2.
3
4.

'Quantitative Methods for Business Decisions', Gallagher and Watson.

'Quantitative Approaches to Management', Levin, Rubin and Stinson.
'Operations Research for Management Decisions', Richmond.
'Introductory Management Science', Gould, Eppen, Schmidt
and Rick Hesse.

1.

A Ready-made garment manufacturer on Bannerghatta Road, is trying to decide on the

number of shirts to be produced in the next month. Six different styles of shirts could be
produced. The styles vary in labour hours required, sales potential and contribution to
profit. The sales potential is estimated by the Marketing Department. The relevant data
is given below:
Shirt
Style

Labour hours
Required per shirt

1
2
3
4
5
6

Maximum Sales

0.6
0.9
0.3
1.4
0.7
1.1

Profit Contribution
Per Shirt (in Rs.)

4,000
1,500
6,000
2,000
2,500
1,800

20
25
18
40
28
33

A total of 8000 labour hours is available next month. The manufacturer would like to
maximize his profit.
Formulate this problem as a Linear Programming Problem.
2.

Naga Lorry Transport Company is trying to decide how much diesel to buy from four
suppliers during the next quarter. It has three offices at Bangalore, Madras and
Coimbatore. The requirements of diesel at these Cities are: 4,500 litres at Bangalore,
6,500 litres at Madras and 5,600 litres at Coimbatore.
The four suppliers of diesel indicated that they could provide only a limited quantity of
diesel. Suppliers A,B,C and D can provide at most 10000, 12000, 9000 and 14000 litres
respectively. The supply prices of diesel quoted by these suppliers are different for different
cities as this involves some rescheduling and extra transportation. The following table
gives the price per litre (in Rs) of diesel quoted by the suppliers.

Supplier

City
1

Bangalore

Madras

Coimbatore

8.60

8.80

8.75

8.40

9.00

8.85

8.50

8.40

8.65

8.80

8.50

8.42

The manager has to decide on the quantity of diesel to be purchased from these suppliers
so that requirements are satisfied with minimum cost.
Formulate this problem as a Linear Programming Problem.
3.

The Tim Burr Company wants to best utilize the wood resources in one of its forest
regions. Within this region, there is a saw-mill and a plywood mill; thus timber can be
converted to lumber or plywood.
Producing a marketable mix of 1000 board metres of lumber products requires
1000 board metres of spruce and 3000 board metres of Douglas fir. Producing 1000
square metres of plywood requires 2000 board metres of spruce and 4000 board
metres of Douglas fir. This region has available 32,000 board metres of spruce and
72,000 board metres of Douglas fir.
Sales commitments require that at least 4000 board metres of lumber and 12,000 board
metres of plywood be produced during the planning period. The profit contributions are
Rs. 400 per 1000 board metres of lumber products and Rs. 600 per 1000 board metres of
plywood. The objective is to maximize the profit contribution.
Express the problem as a linear programming problem.

4.

The XYZ Steel Company must decide how many Kgs of pure steel X and how many Kgs
1
of scrap metal X to use in manufacturing an alloy casting for one of their customers.
2
Assume that the cost per Kg of pure steel is 30 and the cost per Kg of scrap metal is 50
(which is larger because the impurities must be skimmed off). The customer's order is
expressed as a demand for at least 200 Kgs and the customer is willing to accept a greater
amount if XYZ requires a larger production run.
Assume that the supply of pure steel is limited to 100 Kgs and of scrap metal to 300 Kgs.
The ratio of scrap to pure steel cannot exceed 7/8. Only one manufacturing facility for
both melting and casting is available. The facility has only 600 hours of melting and
casting time available; a Kg of pure steel requires three hours whereas a Kg of scrap
requires only two hours to process through the facility.
Express the entire problem as a linear programming model.
2

5.

6.

The STAR Advertising Company has announced that it can optimally allocate its client's
advertising budget by means of linear programming. The company's advertisement is to
identify the various audiences the client wants addressed - such as teenagers, young
married couples, etc. Let the index i represent the ith audience. The client must specify
desired level of exposure Ei for each audience i. Then each advertising vehicle (such as
India Today, a prime-time television spot commercial, a colour ad in a Sunday
newspaper, etc) is scored for its exposure in each of the identified audience categories.
Let the index j represent the jth advertising vehicle, and aij the scored exposure for the ith
audience of allocating a rupee to the jth vehicle. Each decision variable is designated as xj,
which represents the total amount of rupees allocated to the jth advertising vehicle during
a promotion campaign. The client's objective is to minimize its total advertising
expenditure while still meeting its desired levels of product exposure.
(a)

Assume that there are three audiences and five advertising vehicles. Write the
linear programming model implied by the above description.

(b)

Discuss whether you think this linear programming model is an appropriate

approach for choosing an optimal allocation of advertising budget.

The Best Tasties Corporation makes four different kinds of breakfast cereals: Noisies,
Soggies, Bursties, and Reposis. Each of these is a composite of ingredients (grains,
vitamins, sugar and preservatives). Let the index i represent ingredient i, where i = 1,
2,....I. Let aNi be the amount of Ingredient i in a pound of Noisies, and similarly aSi, aBi
and aRi be the amounts of ingredient i per pound for the three other cereals. Assume that
Mi is the maximum amount of Ingredient i available during the next month for making all
of these breakfast cereals.
The profit contribution of a pound of Noisies is represented by PN, and similarly, the profit
contributions for the other cereals are presented by PS, PB and PR. At least 10,000 Kgs of
Noisies must be manufactured, as well as at least 125,000 Kgs of Soggies, 30,000 Kgs of
Bursties, and 500,000 Kgs of Reposies must be manufactured.
Show how an optimal production schedule can be obtained by a linear programming
formulation.

7.

The Tuned-In Transistor Radio Company manufacturers Models A, B and C which have
profit contributions of 8,15, and 25 respectively. The weekly minimum production
requirements are 100 for Model A, 150 for Model B and 75 for Model C. The company
can sell more than the minimum requirements.
Each type of radio requires a certain amount of time for the manufacturing of component
parts, for assembling, and for packaging. Specifically, a dozen units of Model A require
three hours for manufacturing, four hours for assembling, and one hour for packaging. The
corresponding figures for a dozen units of Model B are 3.5, 5, and 1.5, and for a dozen
units of Model C are 5, 8, and 3. During the forthcoming week, the company has
available 150 hours of manufacturing, 200 hours of assembling, and 50 hours of packaging
time.
Formulate the production-scheduling problem as a linear programming model.
3

8.

The manager of the Boilen Oil Company wishes to find the optimal mix of two possible
blending processes. For Process 1, an input of one unit of Crude Oil A and 3 units of
Crude Oil B produces an output of five units of Gasoline X and two units of Gasoline Y.
For Process 2, an input of four units of Crude Oil A and two units of Crude Oil B
produces an output of three units of Gasoline X and eight units of Gasoline Y. Let X1 and
X2 be the number of units the company decides to use of Process 1 and Process 2,
respectively.
The maximum amount of Crude Oil A available is 100 units and of Crude Oil B, 150 units.
Sales commitments require that at least 200 units of Gasoline X and 75 units of Gasoline
Y are to be produced. The unit profits of Process 1 and Process 2 are p 1 and p2,
respectively.
Formulate the blending problem as a linear programming model.

9.

The High Tail Air Freight Company, which operates out of a central terminal, has aircrafts
of Type 1, 15 aircrafts of Type 2, and 12 aircrafts of Type 3 available for today's flights.
The tonnage capacities (in thousands of tons) are 45 for Type 1, 7 for Type 2, and 4 for
Type 3. The company dispatches its planes to Cities A and B. Tonnage requirements (in
thousands of tons) are 20 at City A and 30 at City B; excess tonnage capacity supplied to a
city has no value. A plane can fly only once during the day.
The cost of sending a plane from a terminal to each city is given in the following table:

City A
City B
a)

Type 1

Type 2

Type 3

23
58

5
10

1.4
3.8

Formulate a linear programming model of this routing problem.

Discuss whether an answer so derived would represent an optimal solution to the actual
routing problem.
10.

TRIM PROBLEM : A mill of the Southern Paper Company produces paper board in
jumbo reels having a standard width of 70 inches. (Each reel has a fixed length). The
company's customers, however, order reels having smaller widths and the same fixed
length as the larger reel. This week's orders are for 100 reels of 22-inch width, 125 reels
of 20-inch width, and 80 reels of 12-inch width. These smaller widths are to be cut from
the larger standard size reel.
For example, the company can decide to slit a jumbo into reels each 22 inches wide, and
one reel 20 inches wide; this leaves 6 inches of trim waste from the 70-inch jumbo. The
company wants to manufacture this week's orders so as to minimize total trim waste.
Formulate the problem as a linear programming model (note that if any reels in excess of
the customer requirements are cut from the standard size reel, these too must be counted
as waste).
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11.

The Fly-by-Night Airline must decide on the amounts of jet fuel to purchase from three
possible vendors. The airline refuels its aircraft regularly at the four airports it serves.
The oil companies have said that they can furnish upto the following amounts of fuel
during the coming month: 250,000 litres for Oil Company 1; 500,000 litres for Oil
Company 2; and 800,000 litres for Oil Company 3. The required amount of jet fuel is
100,000 litres at Airport 1; 200,000 litres at Airport 2; 300,000 litres at Airport 3; and
400,000 litres at Airport 4.
When transportation costs are added to the bid price per litre supplied, the combined cost
per litre to get fuel from each vendor furnishing fuel at a specific airport is shown in the
table below:
Airport 1
Airport 2
Airport 3
Airport 4

Company 1
12
10
8
1

Company 2
9
11
11
13

Company 3
10
14
13
9

Formulate the decision problem as a linear programming model.

12.

An Electric Manufacturing Company produces a small component for an industrial

product and distributes it to five wholesalers at a fixed delivered price of Rs. 250 per unit.
Sales forecasts indicate that monthly deliveries will be 3000 units to Wholesaler 1; 3000
units to Wholesaler 2; 10,000 units to Wholesaler 3; 5000 units to Wholesaler 4; and 4000
units to Wholesaler 5.
The monthly production capacities are 5,000 at Plant1; 10,000 at Plant 2; and 12,500 at
Plant 3. The direct costs of producing each unit are Rs. 120 at Plant 1, Rs.130 at plant 2
and Rs. 123 at Plant 3.
The transportation costs (in Rs.) of shipping 100 units from a plant to a wholesaler are
given below:

Plant
1
2
3

5
8
10

7
6
9

Wholesalers
3
10
9
8

15
12
10

15
14
15

Formulate a linear programming model to decide on the optimal production amounts at

each plant, and how many components each plant should supply to each wholesaler.
5

13.

A City Police Department has the following minimal daily requirements for policemen:
Time of day
(24 hr clock)

Period

2 -6
6-10
10-14
14-18
18-22
22-2

Minimal Number of Policemen

Required during period
1
2
3
4
5
6

20
50
80
100
40
30

Consider Period 1 as following immediately after period 6. Each policeman works

eight consecutive hours. Police Department seeks a daily manpower schedule that
employs the least number of policemen, provided that each of the above requirements
are met.
14.

The Feeder-Service Airlines Company must decide how many new female flight attendants
to hire and train over the next six months. The requirements expressed as the number of
female attendant-flight-hours needed are 8000 in January; 9000 in February; 8000 in
March, 10,000 in April; 9000 in May; and 12,000 in June.
It takes one month of training before a flight attendant can be put on a regular flight; so an
attendant must be hired at least a month before she is actually needed. Also, a trainee
requires 100 hours of supervision by experienced female flight attendants during the
month of training so that 100 less hours are available for flight service by regular flight
attendants.
Each experienced flight attendant can work up to 150 hours a month, and Feeder-Service
has 60 regular female flight attendants available at the beginning of January. If the
maximum time available from experienced flight attendants exceeds a month's flying and
training requirements, then they are laid off. Those that are laid off in a month are not
available for rehiring in later months. Each month, approximately 10% of the experienced
female flight attendants quit their jobs.
An experienced flight attendant costs the company Rs. 4,000 and a trainee Rs. 1,500 a
month in salary and other benefits.
(a)
(b)

15.

Formulate the hiring-and-training problem as a linear programming model.

The above statement of the problem assumes a six month planning horizon.
Suppose you add July's requirements to the model. Would the previous solution
necessarily change?

The Home Appliance Company produces refrigerators, stoves and washing machines.
Expected sales during the coming year are given below:

Product

2
6

Quarters
3

Refrigerators
Stoves
Washing Machines

2,000
1,500
1,000

1,500
1,500
3,000

3,000
1,000
1,500

1,000
1,500
3,000

The company wants a production schedule that meets these quarterly demand
requirements. Management also has decided that the inventory level for each product must
be at least 1,000 units at the end of each quarter. There is no inventory of any product at
the start of the first quarter.
During a quarter only 8000 hours of production time are available. A refrigerator requires
0.5 hours, a stove 2 hours, and a washing machine 1.5 hours of production time.
Refrigerators cannot be manufactured in the fourth quarter because the company plans to
modify tooling for a new product line.
Assume that each item left in inventory at the end of a quarter incurs a holding or storage
cost of Rs. 500. The company wants a production schedule that does not exceed the
production-time limitation of each quarter, that meets the quarterly demand and inventory
requirements, and that keeps the total cost of carrying inventory to a minimum
Show how the problem can be solved by a linear programming model.
16.

The Raja Chemical Company has been ordered by its state government to install and
employ anti-pollution devices. The corporation makes two products; for each of these
products, the manufacturing process yields excessive amount of irritant gases and
Particulates (airborne solids). Table below shows the daily emissions, in Kgs of each
pollutant for every 1000 litres of product manufactured. The company is prohibited from
emitting more than G1, G2 and P Kgs of Gas CM, Gas SD and Particulates, respectively.
The profit for each thousand litres of Products 1 and 2 manufactured per day is P 1 and P2
respectively.

Type of
Pollutant

Kgs. of Pollutant Emitted

Per 1,000 litres of
Per 1,000 litres of
Product - 1
Product - 2

Gas CM
Gas SD
Particulates

24
8
100

36
12
50

The production manager, Mr. Shekar, has approved the installation of two anti-pollution
devices. Either one or both of these anti-pollution devices can be installed. The first device
removes 75% of Gas CM, 60% of Gas SD, and 90% of the Particulates regardless of the
product made. The second device removes 33% of Gas CM, none of Gas SD and 80% of
the Particulates for Product 1, and 25% of Gas CM, none of Gas SD and 60% of the
Particulates for Product 2. The first device reduces profit per thousand litres
manufactured daily by C1, regardless of the products; similarly, the second device reduces
profit by C2 per thousand litres manufactured daily, regardless of the product. Sales
commitments dictate that at least R1 thousand litres of Product 1 be produced per day and
R2 thousand litres of Product 2.
Formulate the problem as a Linear Programming model to maximize profit.
17.

Prior to the end of each harvest season for mangoes, Prakash Pickle Company must
contract for the purchase of mangoes from each of the 5 growers. The mangoes are then
shifted to 3 processing Plants to be converted into mango pickles. The Manager of
Purchases, Mr. Nair, has collected historical data on mangoes grown by different farmers
and has determined the variations in mango size to expect from each purchasing source.
There are 4 sizes of mangoes (measured in terms of diameter size). The requirements of
the Plants for these 4 classes of mangoes is given below:
Plant
1
2
3

Requirement by size (in '000)

1
2
3

2
3
2

1
2
4

4
4
3

3
5
1

The growers sell mangoes in lots of 1000 and a lot may contain all or some different sizes.
From past data, Mr. Nair found the proportion of different sizes of mangoes in a lot
supplied by each grower. These figures are given below. The total number of mangoes
likely to be available with each grower is also given.

Proportion of Mangoes by size

1

Total No. of
Mangoes available
(in '000)

0.4
0.6
0.2
0
0.1

0.1
0
0.5
0.4
0.2

0.2
0.3
0.2
0.4
0.4

0.3
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.3

120
140
200
180
210

Grower
1
2
3
4
5

The costs per 1000 mangoes quoted by the growers are: Rs.800, Rs.700, Rs.750, Rs.900
and Rs.1000 for growers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively.
The purchase plan may cause the Company to have more of some sizes of mangoes than
they actually require. Assume that after purchase the mangoes are sorted by size at the
growers' locations. The costs of transportation per 1000 mangoes from growers' sites to
Plants are given below:
Growers
1
2
3
4
5

Plants
2

1
500
600
450
550
525

700
550
500
600
475

3
450
650
600
725
500

The mangoes of any size that are found to be in excess supply relative to requirements are
destroyed at the growers' site without any additional cost.
Formulate an optimization model that indicates how many mangoes to purchase from each
grower and which size mangoes to ship to each plant.
18.

The Nagarjuna Sagar Dam Systems is comprised of several dams, reservoirs and river
tributaries. One of these is Krishna Dam Reservoir at Vijayawada. It is important to keep
the depth of this reservoir within prescribed limits (the depth as measured at a specified
place). The Superintending Engineer of the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam System, Mr Murthy is
responsible for deciding, every month, on how much water to be released from the
Nagarjuna Sagar Dam to the Krishna Dam reservoir. The engineers in his department
estimated a rapid rate of seepage and evaporation at Krishna Dam reservoir. Since rainfall
is negligible, Krishna Dam reservoir must be maintained by spillage from Nagarjuna Sagar
Dam. Suppose, Murthy plans ahead for next 12 months. At the beginning, suppose the
depth of the Krishna reservoir is 25 metres. The lower and upper limits fixed for the depth
of the reservoir after augmentation are 18 metres and 32 metres. Suppose the seepage
rate is 0.15 i.e the reservoir depth in this month is 0.85 times the reservoir depth last
month (after augmentation).

(a)

Cost
(in '000
Rupees)

Suppose that the costs of augmenting the reservoir per metre is different for
different months and are given below:
1

MONTH
7
8

10

11

12

10

11

12

13

11

12

14

12

11

10

Formulate the problem as an linear programming problem to decide on the amount of

augmentation of the reservoir in each month which will minimize the total cost.
(b)

Suppose the cost of augmenting the reservoir is as given in (a) provided the
augmentation amount does not exceed 5 metres. Any augmentation in excess of 5
metres will have an extra cost of Rs. 14000 per metre for months 1 to 6 and an
extra cost of Rs. 15000 per metre for months 7 to 12.

Reformulate the problem.

19.

The Managing Director of a Company, which produces a single type of item, wants to
enlarge the plant capacity over a period of next six quarters. The objective is to have a
production capacity as large as possible by the beginning of the seventh quarter.
Each unit of the item produced in a quarter requires one unit of plant capacity and Rs. 100
towards cost of raw materials, processing and payment of wages. It yields a sales revenue
of Rs. 140 per unit at the beginning of the next quarter.
In each quarter, the Company can use either one or both of two construction techniques to
expand its plant. Each alternative requires cash in the period in which the expansion is
initiated and one takes more time than the other. For building one unit capacity, expansion
method 1 requires Rs. 20,000 when the construction activity is started and yields an added
capacity by the beginning of the next quarter. For building one unit capacity, expansion
method 2 requires Rs 15,000 when the construction activity is started and yields an added
capacity by the beginning of the quarter after the following one.
The Company has Rs. 250,000 of finance for production and expansion in quarter 1.
Production and expansion activities in subsequent quarters should be self funding and no
supply of cash will be forthcoming from outside sources. It is desired to maximize the
plant capacity by the beginning of the 7th quarter. The Plant capacity at the start of quarter
1 is 800.
Formulate this problem as a Linear Programming problem.

20.

An investor has two money-making activities. Let us call them A and B. These alternatives
are available at the beginning of a year for the next four years. Each rupee invested in
alternative A at the beginning of a year yields a return two years later in time for immediate
investment i.e. if Rs. 1 is invested in A at the beginning of first year then it yields a return
at the end of second year which could be reinvested at the beginning of the third year.
10

Each rupee invested in alternative B at the beginning of a year yields a return three years
later. A third investment possibility, construction projects, will become available at the
beginning of second year. Each rupee invested in construction projects at the beginning of
a year yields a return one year later. This investment is available at the beginning of third
and fourth years also. The investor starts with Rs. 2 lakhs at the beginning of the first year
and wants to maximize the total amount of money available at the beginning of fifth year.
The returns on investment for each investment alternative are given below:
Investment
Alternative

Return per Rupee

Invested

A
B
Construction

Rs. 1.60
Rs. 2.00
Rs. 1.30

Formulate the problem as a linear programming problem.

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