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Õ
 
 (LP) is a mathematical method for
determining a way to achieve the best outcome (such as
maximum profit or lowest cost) in a given mathematical model for
some list of requirements represented as linear equations.

More formally, linear programming is a technique for the

optimization of a linear objective function, subject to linear equality
and linear inequality constraints. Given a polyhedron and a real-
valued affine function defined on this polyhedron, a linear
programming method will find a point on the polyhedron where
this function has the smallest (or largest) value if such point
exists, by searching through the polyhedron vertices.



  
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Linear programming can be applied to various fields of study. It is

used most extensively in business and economics, but can also
be utilized for some engineering problems. Industries that use
linear programming models include transportation, energy,
telecommunications, and manufacturing. It has proved useful in
modeling diverse types of problems in planning, routing,
scheduling, assignment, and design.



  
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@ publisher has orders for 600 copies of a certain text from San
Francisco and 400 copies from Sacramento. The company has
700 copies in a warehouse in Novato and 800 copies in a
warehouse in Lodi. It costs $5 to ship a text from Novato to San
Francisco, but it costs $10 to ship it to Sacramento. It costs $15 to
ship a text from Lodi to San Francisco, but it costs $4 to ship it
from Lodi to Sacramento. How many copies should the company
ship from each warehouse to San Francisco and Sacramento to
fill the order at the least cost?



 






    
 


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Steps

0. Read the whole problem.

1. Define your unknowns.
2. Express the objective function
3. Express the constraints.
4. Graph the constraints.
5. Find the corner points to the region of feasible solutions.
6. Evaluate the objective function at all the feasible corner points.



 






    
 


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@fter reading the whole problem we see that they want to know
how many books to ship from each warehouse to each bookstore.
There are four unknowns
Let
x = the number of books from Novato to San Francisco
y = the number of books from Novato to Sacramento
z = the number of books from Lodi to San Francisco
w = the number of books from Lodi to Sacramento.



 






    
 


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The objective is to minimize the cost

cost = 5x + 10y + 15z + 4w



 






    
 


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6 


 

The first two constraints have to do with the orders.
San Francisco
x + z = 600
Sacramento
y + w = 400
These are equations. San Francisco has an order for 600 books.
They have to get exactly 600 books. More or less will not do. If
they get less than 600 books, students will be going without texts,
but if they get more than 600 texts, they will say, "We only orderd
600 texts. We're not paying for any more." Similarly, Sacramento
needs exactly 400 texts. @s a result, we can solve these
equations to express z and w in terms of x and y.
z = 600 - x
w = 400 - y



 






    
 


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The next two constraints have to do with the supplies
There are only 700 books in Novato.
x + y < 700
There are only 800 books in Lodi.
z + w < 800
If we substitute for z and w, we can express this constraint in
terms of x and y.
600 - x + 400 - y < 800
1000 - x - y < 800
200 < x + y
The total order is for 1000 books. There are only 800 books in
Lodi. @t least 200 books will have to come from Novato.
Then there are the implied constraints.
x > 0
y > 0
z > 0
w>0


 

 



 


      
  


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When we substitute into the last two, we get
600 - x > 0
400 - y > 0
or
600 > x
400 > y
Let us summarize our constraints expressed using only x and y.
x + y < 700
x + y > 200
x < 600
y < 400
x>0
y>0



 






    
 


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6  


   
 

The feasible corner points are

(0, 400)
(0, 200)
(200, 0)
(600, 0)
(600, 100)
((300, 400)

We now evaluate the objective function at all of the feasible

corner points. The coordinates tell us how many books are being
shipped from Novato to San Francisco and Sacramento. Once we
know that we can figure how many books are going to be shipped
from Lodi. We will ship enough books from Lodi to fill the orders.



 






    
 


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@t (0, 400) we would be shipping 400 books from Novato to
Sacramento. That would fill the Sacramento order, so we would
not need to ship any books from Lodi to Sacramento, but San
Francisco still needs its 500 copies. Those would all come from
Lodi. This would probably be the worst solution. @ll of the books
would be shipped to the most expensive places.
@t (0, 200), 200 copies would go from Novato to Sacramento, and
none from Novato to San Francisco. @ll 600 copies to San
Francisco would come from Lodi. Sacramento would still need
200 copies which would also come from Lodi. This is a feasible
solution, because there would be 800 copies coming from Lodi,
and there are 800 copies in Lodi. This would be a better solution
than the first one because not all copies are going to the most
expensive places. The constraint upon which we find these two
solutions is the one where there are no copies going from Novato
to San Francisco.


 






    
 


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@t (200, 0), There would be 200 copies going from Novato to San Francisco
and none from Novato to Sacramento. San Francisco would still need 400
copies from Lodi, and all 400 copies to Sacramento would be coming from
Lodi. @gain this would involve using all 800 copies from the Lodi
warehouse. The constraint upon which we find these last two solution are
the constaint that comes from the fact that Lodi has only 800 copies. The
other 200 copies in the total order will come from Novato.
@t (600, 0), There would be 600 copies coming from Novato to San
Francisco. This would fill the San Francisco order. If there are no copies
going from Novato to Sacramento, then the entire Sacramento order of 400
copies must come from Lodi. The constraint upon which we find these last
two solutions is the one where there are no copies going from Novato to
Sacramento. This is good, because it costs more money to send books
from Novato to Sacramento than it does to send them from Novato to San
Francisco.


 






    
 


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@t (200, 0), There would be 200 copies going from Novato to San Francisco
and none from Novato to Sacramento. San Francisco would still need 400
copies from Lodi, and all 400 copies to Sacramento would be coming from
Lodi. @gain this would involve using all 800 copies from the Lodi
warehouse. The constraint upon which we find these last two solution are
the constaint that comes from the fact that Lodi has only 800 copies. The
other 200 copies in the total order will come from Novato.
@t (600, 0), There would be 600 copies coming from Novato to San
Francisco. This would fill the San Francisco order. If there are no copies
going from Novato to Sacramento, then the entire Sacramento order of 400
copies must come from Lodi. The constraint upon which we find these last
two solutions is the one where there are no copies going from Novato to
Sacramento. This is good, because it costs more money to send books
from Novato to Sacramento than it does to send them from Novato to San
Francisco.


 






    
 


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@t (600, 100), after filling the San Francisco order with books from Novato,
the other 100 copies in the Novato warehouse go to Sacramento. San
Francisco would not get any copies from Lodi. Lodi would fill the remainder
of the Sacramento order and send them 300 copies. Tshe constraint upon
which these last two solutions find themselves comes from filling the San
Francisco order with books from Novato.
Finally, at (300, 400), the entire Sacramento order is filled from Novato, and
the remaining 300 copies in the Novato warehouse would go to
Sacramento. @t this point, Lodi would need to send 100 copies to
Sacramento to fill their order, but would not have to send anything to San
Francisco. The constraint upon which we find these last two solutions is the
constraint that comes from the fact that there are 700 copies in the Novato
warehouse.



 






    
 


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6 
  
   
 
  
   
 

Now that we know the number of copies from each warehouse to each retailer,
we can plug these numbers into the objective function. There is another way
that we have gone over in class. We can express the objective function

5x + 10y + 15z + 4w

using only x and y by substituting z = 600 - x and w = 400 ± y

5x + 10y + 15(600 - x) + 4(400 - y)

= 5x + 10y + 9000 - 15x + 1600 - 4y
= 10600 - 10x + 6y



 






    
 


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The $10600 would be the cost of shipping all 600 copies from Lodi to San
Francisco and all 400 copies from Lodi to Sacramento. Of course this is not a
feasible solution. there are only 800 copies on Lodi. We will have to ship some
books from Novato. This objective function expresses the fact that we save
money by shipping books from Novato to San Francisco, but it will cost more
money to ship them from Novato to Sacramento. @s a result we will see that the
solution which involves shipping the most books from Novato to San Francisco
and the fewest books from Novato to Sacramento will be best.
(0, 400)

= 10600 - 10(0) + 6(400) =10600 - 0 + 2400 = $13,000



 






    
 


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(0, 200)

= 10600 - 10(0) + 6(200) = 10600 - 0 + 1200 = $11800



 






    
 


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(200, 0)

= 10600 - 10(200) + 0 = 10600 - 2000 + 0 = $8600



 






    
 


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(600, 0)

= 10600 - 10(600) + 6(0) = 10600 - 6000 + 0 = $4600



 






    
 


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(600, 100)

=10600 - 10(600) + 6(100) = 10600 - 6000 + 600 = $5200



 






    
 


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(300, 400)

= 10600 - 10(300) + 6(400) = 10600 - 3000 + 2400 = $10,000



 






    
 


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(300, 400)

= 10600 - 10(300) + 6(400) = 10600 - 3000 + 2400 = $10,000



 






    
 


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The least cost of $4,600 is found at (600, 0). This makes sense if you think
about it. You are filling the entire San Francisco order with copies from Novato,
which is cheaper, and filling the entire Sacramento order with copies from Lodi,
which is also cheaper. One could arrive at this solution by common sense, but it
is good if our techniques validate common sense.