Linear Programming Problems
Practice Problem - Formulations
1. Diet Problem
A person wants to decide the constituents of a diet which will fulfill his daily
requirements of proteins, fats and carbohydrates at the minimum cost. The choice is to be
made from four different types of foods. The yields per unit of this food are given in
below Table.
Yield per unit Cost per unit
Food Type
Proteins Fats Carbohydrates (Rs.)
1 3 2 6 45
2 4 2 4 40
3 8 7 7 85
4 6 5 4 65
Minimum
800 200 700
Requirement
Formulate linear programming model for the problem.
2. Product Mix problem
A manufacturer is considering four types of gift-packs containing three types of biscuits:
orange cream (o.c.), chocolate cream (c.c.) and wafers (w.). Market research conducted to
assess the preferences of the consumers shows the following types of assortments to be in
good demand:
Assortment Contents Selling price / kg (Rs.)
Not less than 40% of o.c.
A 200
Not more than 20% of c.c.
Not less than 20% of o.c.
B 250
Not more than 40% of c.c.
Not less than 50% of o.c.
C 220
Not more than 10% of c.c.
D No restiction 120
For the biscuits the manufacturing capacity and costs are given below.
Biscuit variety Plant capacity (kg/day) Manufacturing cost (Rs./kg)
o.c. 200 80
c.c. 200 90
W. 150 70
Formulate the L.P. model to find the production schedule which maximizes the profit
assuming that there are no market restrictions.
3. Product mix problem
A firm manufacturers two items. It purchases castings which are then machined, bored
and polished. Casting for items A and B cost Rs. 2 and Rs. 3 respectively and are sold at
Rs. 5 and Rs. 6 each respectively. Running costs of the three machines are Rs. 20, Rs. 14
and Rs. 17.50 per hour respectively. Capacities of the machines are
Part A Part B
Machining Capacity 25/hr 40/hr
Boring Capacity 28/hr 35/hr
Polishing Capacity 35/hr 25/hr
Formulate the L.P. model to determine the product mix that maximizes the profit.
4. Product Mix Problem
The Delhi florist company is planning to make up floral arrangements for the upcoming
festival. The company has available the following supply of flowers at the cost shown:
Type Number available Cost per flower (Rs.)
Red roses 800 0.20
Gardenias 456 0.25
Carnations 4,000 0.15
White roses 920 0.20
Yellow roses 422 0.22
These flowers can be used in any of the four popular arrangements whose make up and
selling prices are as follows:
Arrangement Requirement Selling Price
4 Red roses
Economy 2 Gardenias Rs. 6
8 Carnations
8 White roses
5 Gardenias
Maytime Rs. 8
10 Carnations
4 Yellow roses
9 Red roses
10 Carnations
Spring-colour Rs. 10
9 White roses
6 Yellow roses
12 Red roses
Deluxe-rose 12 White roses Rs. 12
12 Yellow roses
Formulate a linear programming problem which allows the florist company to determine
how many units of each arrangement should be made up in order to maximize profits
assuming all arrangements can be sold.
5. Flight Scheduling Problem
An aircraft company, which operates out of a central terminal, has 8 aircrafts of Types A,
15 aircrafts of Type B and 12 aircrafts of Type C available for today’s flights. The
tonnage capacities (in thousands of tons) are 4.5 for Type A, 7 for Type B and 4 for Type
C.
The company dispatches its planes to cities PQR and XYZ. Tonnage requirements (in
thousands of tons) are 20 at city PQR and 30 at city XYZ; excess tonnage capacity
supplied to a city has no value. A plane can fly once only during the day.
The cost of sending a plane from the terminal to each city is given by the following table:
Type A Type B Type C
City PQR 23 5 1.4
City XYZ 28 10 3.8
Formulate the LP model to minimize the air transportation cost.
6. Investment Problem
Mr. Krishnamurty, a retired Govt. officer, has recently received his retirement benefits,
viz., provident fund, gratuity etc. He is contemplating as to how much funds he should
invest in various alternatives open to him so as to maximize return on investment. The
investment alternatives are: government securities, fixed deposits of a public limited
company, equity shares, time deposits in banks, national saving certificates and real
estate. He has made a subjective estimate of the risk involved. The data on the return on
investment, the number of years for which the funds will be blocked to earn this return on
investment and the subjective risk involved are as follows:
Investment alternatives Return No. of years Risk
Govt. securities 6% 15 1
Company deposits 15% 3 3
Equity shares 20% 6 7
Time deposits 10% 3 1
N.S.C. 12% 6 1
Real estate 25% 10 2
He was wondering what percentage of funds he should invest in each alternative so as to
maximize the return on investment. He decided that average risk should not be more than
4, and funds should not be locked up for more than 15 years. Formulate an L.P. model for
the problem if he does not want more than 30% of the investment to be put in the real
estate.
