Minimization

Problem
Brief History

 also known as blending problem

 determine the best blend of available ingredients to form

a certain quantity of a product under strict specifications

 best blend = least-cost blend of the required inputs

 especially important in the process industries such as

petroleum, chemicals and food
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History
1. A kitchen manager of ABC hospital has to
decide the food mix for the patients. Dietary
instructions are that each patient must get at
least :
(a) one gram of protein
(b) one gram of fat
(c) 3 grams of carbohydrates
Additional instructions are that in no case the
carbohydrate content should exceed 6 grams per
patient.
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

The availability of protein, fat and carbohydrate in

grams per unit of chicken, rice and bread is a given
below:
Protein Fat Carbohydates Price
Chicken 10 2 0 P130/ Kg
Rice 2 1 15 P15/cup
Bread 2 0 10 P5/slice

Formulate the LP model to minimize total cost .

Minimization
Problem
Brief History

X2
X1 X3

MEAL
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

2. A dietician has been asked by the athletic

director of the university to develop a snack that
athletes can use in their training programs. The
dietician intends to mix the two separate products
together to make the snack. The following
information has been obtained by the dietician.
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

Nutrient Minimum Amount Contribution per

Required (grams) ounce (in gram)
Product A Product B
Carbohydrates 20 2 5
Protein 12 6 1
Calories 450 90 50

Product A costs P10 per ounce and product B costs P8 per ounce.
Formulate the LP model.
PRODUCT A PRODUCT B
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

3. The SYS Construction Company is building roads on the

side of the Sierra Madre Mountain. It is necessary to use
explosives to blow up the underground boulders to make the
surface level. There are three ingredients (A, B, C) in the
explosive used. It is known that at least 15 grams of the
explosive must be used to get results. If more than 25 grams
are used, the explosion will be too damaging. Also, for an
explosion, at least ¼ gram of the ingredient C must be used
for every gram of ingredient A,
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

and at least 1 gram of ingredient B must be used for every

gram of ingredient C. The costs of ingredients A, B, and C
are P750, P1,150 and P1,500 per gram, respectively.
Formulate the LP model.
 
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

4. The minimum daily requirement of vitamin D for patients

following surgery is 180 units, whereas the minimum amount
of B12 that they may receive is 150 units. The hospital dietitian
is considering liver and steak for the daily diet. Each pound of
liver costs P70, whereas a pound of steak costs P140. On the
average, two ounces of liver and five ounces of steak provide
the minimum daily need for vitamin D. An ounce of liver yields
30 units of vitamin D and 20 units of vitamin B12. A pound of
steak yields 480 units of B12 and an undetermined amount of
vitamin D. Find the least cost diet, per patient per day. Note:
There are 454 grams in 1 pound and 16 ounces in a pound.
 
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

5. Market Survey, Inc. (MSI), specializes in

evaluating consumer reaction to new products,
services, and advertising campaigns. A client firm
has requested MSI’s assistance in ascertaining
consumer reaction to a recently marketed
household product. During meetings with the
client, MSI agreed to conduct door-to-door
personal interviews to obtain responses from
households with children and households without
children.
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

In addition, MSI agreed to conduct both day and evening

interviews. Specifically, the client’s contract called for MSI
to conduct 1000 interviews under the following quota
guidelines.
a) At least 400 households with children would be
interviewed.
b) At least 400 households without children would be
interviewed.
c) The total number of households interviewed during the
evening would be at least as great as the number of
households interviewed during day.
 
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

d) At least 40% of the interviews for households with

children would be conducted during the evening.
e) At least 60% of the interviews for households without
children would be conducted during the evening.
Because the interviews for households with children
take additional interviewer time and because evening
interviewers are paid more than daytime interviewers,
the cost varies with the type of interview. Based on
previous research studies, estimates of the interview
costs are as follows:
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW COST

DAY EVENING
w/ children P800 P1,000
w/o children P700 P850

What is the household, time-of-day interview

plan that will satisfy the contract requirements at
a minimum total interviewing cost?
 Minimization
Problem
Brief History

HOUSEHOLD INTERVIEW COST

DAY EVENING
w/ children P800 P1,000
w/o children P700 P850

What is the household, time-of-day interview

plan that will satisfy the contract requirements at
a minimum total interviewing cost?
6. La Tondena Company is considering
producing a wine cooler that would be a blend of
a white wine, a rose wine and a fruit juice. To
meet taste specifications, the wine cooler must
consist of at least 50% white wine, at least 20%
and no more than 30% of rose wine, and exactly
20% fruit juice. La Tondena purchases the wine
from local wineries and the fruit juice from
processing plant in San Francisco.
For the current production period, 10,000
gallons of white wine and 8000 gallons of rose
wine can be purchased, there is no limit on the
amount of fruit juice that can be ordered. The
costs for the wine are P40 per gallon for the
white and P60 per gallon for the rose, the fruit
juice can be purchased for P40 per gallon. La
Tondena can sell all of the wine cooler they can
produce for P120 per gallon. Find the
production plan to minimize cost.
7. Each gallon of milk, kilogram of cheese, and
pound of apples provides a known number of
milligrams of protein and vitamins A, B, and C.
The following table includes those data together
with the minimum daily requirements of the
nutritional ingredients, as recommended by the
Department of Health. The table also includes
the minimum amount of each food that should
be included in the meal and its cost.
 MILK CHEESE APPLES MINIMUM DAILY
(mg/gal) (mg/kg) (mg/lb) REQUIREMENTS
(mg)
Protein 40 70 50 100
Vitamin A 14 100 300 70
Vitamin B 10 60 400 60
Vitamin C 10 100 600 100
Minimum 0.15 gal 0.15 kg. 0.10 lb
amount
Unit cost (P) 350 300 90

As a dietician for a public school, formulate a

model to determine the least-cost meal that
meets all the daily nutritional requirements.
8. A fuel cell manufacturer can hire union, non-
union permanent, or temporary help. She has a
contract to produce at the rate of 2,100 fuel cells
per day and would like to achieve this at
minimum cost. Union workers work seven hours
per day and can make up to 10 fuel cells per
hour. Their benefits and wages cost the
company P50 and P80 per hour, respectively.
Union workers are assured that there will be no
more than 80% of their number working in non-
union permanent positions and that there will
be no more than 20% of their number working
in temporary positions.
Non-union permanent workers work eight
hours per day and can also make up to 10 fuel
cells per hour. Their wages are the same as
the union employees, but their benefits are
worth only P30 per hour.
Temporary workers work six hours per day, can
make up to 5 fuel cells per hour and earn only
P50 per hour. They do not receive any benefits.
How many union, non-union, and temporary
workers should be hired to minimize the cost to
the manufacturer? Formulate the LP model.
 1. Nestley Company is considering developing a
new low fat snack food. It is to be a blend of two
types of cereals, each of which has different fiber,
fat and protein characteristics. The following table
shows these nutrition characteristics for one ounce
of each type of cereal.

Dietary Fiber Fat Protein

Cereal
(grams) (grams) (grams)
A 6 4 5
B 4 5 4
 Note that each ounce of cereal A provides 2
grams of dietary fiber and that each ounce of
cereal B provides 1.5 grams of dietary fiber. Thus,
if Nestley were to develop the new product using a
mix consisting of 50% of cereal A and 50% of
cereal B, 1 pound of snack food would contain 80
grams of dietary fiber. Nestley’s nutrition
requirements call for each pound of the new food
to have at least 90 grams of dietary fiber, no more
than 60 grams of fat, and at least 40 grams of
protein.
The cost of cereal A is P 80.00 per pound and the
cost of cereal B is P72 per pound. The company
wants to determine how much of each cereal is
needed to produce 1 pound of the new product at
the lowest possible cost. Formulate the complete
LP model of this problem.
10. Burn Off, a manufacturer of diet drinks, is
planning to introduce a miracle drink that will
magically burn away fat. The drink is a bit
expensive, but Burn Off guarantees that a person
using this diet plan will lose up to 6 kilograms in
just 4 weeks. The drink is made up of four
“mystery” ingredients (which we will call ingredient
A, B, C, and D). The plans call for a person to
consume at least three 12-ounce doses per day.
Each of the four ingredients contains different
levels of three chemical compounds (which we
will call chemicals X, Y, and Z). Health
regulations mandate that the dosage consumed
per day should contain minimum prescribed
levels of chemicals X and Y and should not
exceed maximum prescribed levels for the third
chemical, Z.
 The composition of the four ingredients in terms
of the chemical compounds (units per ounce) is
shown in the following table, along with the unit
cost prices of the ingredients to create the drink,
at minimum cost per dose.

INGREDIENT (units/ounce) REQUIREMENT/day

A B C D
Chemical X 2 5 7 9 At least 300 units
Chemical Y 7 6 5 5 At least 225 units
Chemical Z 12 20 25 30 At most 1,200 units
Cost per pound (P) 50 32 75 40
Fowle Marketing Research has four project
leaders available for the assignment of project
leaders to clients that will minimize the total
time to complete all projects. The estimated
project completion times in days are as
follows:
The estimated project completion times in
days are as follows:

PROJECT CLIENT
LEADER 1 2 3

ADAM 10 15 9
BOB 9 18 5
CARL 6 14 3
DAN 8 16 6