Mining Operations Research 232 – Assignment 1

(1) (25 marks) A company has M production plants located in different areas being Si the production
capacity per period for plant i (i=1,...,M). This company produces a single article in all their plants.
This article is demanded in N different cities in T periods being Djt the demand of city j (j=1,...,N) for
period t (t=1,...,T). All demand have to be satisfied. The cost of producing one unit in plant i in
period t is Cit. Inventory cannot be stored in the plants.

The company has P warehouses located in different places in the country. In this way, the
production of the plants will be sent to the warehouses and from there will be sent to the cities. If
one unit of product that arrives at a warehouse in a period is sent within the same period then the
company doesn’t need to pay storage costs. Nevertheless, product can be stored as inventory in the
warehouses and the company has to pay Gk per unit of product per period at warehouse k (k=1,...,P).
The warehouse capacity for each warehouse is Wk.

Finally, transportation cost from plant i to warehouse k in period t is PBikt and the transportation cost
from warehouse k to city j in period t is BCkjt, both of them per unit of product.

Write down a Linear Programming model to decide the amount to produce and store in each plant
and warehouse to minimise total cost.

(2) (10 marks) Solve using SIMPLEX

Max Z = 2 X 1 + X 2 − 3 X 3 + 5 X 4
s.a. X 1 + 7 X 2 + 3 X 3 + 7 X 4 ≤ 46
3 X1 − X 2 + X 3 + 2 X 4 ≤8
2 X1 + 3 X 2 − X 3 + X 4 ≤ 10
Xi ≥ 0

(3) (10 marks) Solve the previous problem using SOLVER

(4) (15 marks) Solve using SIMPLEX

Max Z = X 1 + 2 X 2 + 4 X 3
s.a. X 1 + X 2 ≤ 10
X 1 + 2 X 2 + X 3 + = 14
X 1 ≥ 0, X 2 ≤ 0, X 3 unrestricted

(5) (10 marks)

Solve the previous problem using SOLVER

(6) (30 marks)

The owner of a restaurant will need in m consecutive days dI table cloths for each day i.
table cloths can be acquired at a cost $p each one and after being used they can be sent to
the laundry. The laundry provides two services available: a fast one (laundry takes just one
day) and costs $ l1 per table cloth and a normal one (takes 2 days) and cost $ l2 per table
cloth.

(i) Formulate a model that allows the owner to know the number of table cloths that he has
to buy initially and the number that has to be sent to laundry every day in order to
minimise his costs and satisfy the demand for table cloths

(ii) Solve this model (using solver) for the following instance:

• m = 5.
• d1 = 12; d2 = 10; d3 = 11; d4 = 20; d5 = 18.
• p = 1200.
• l1 = 130.
• l2 = 80.
(iii) Is the answer going to change if l2 = 90?

(iv) How many table cloths is the owner going to buy when d4 = 15?

Deadline: April 23rd 2010 at 5:00 P.M. Questions can be directed to

j.saavedra@curtin.edu.au or pay a personal visit to my office.