Unit Two : Linear Programming

Linear programming (LP) is a mathematical modeling

technique useful for economic allocation of scarce or
limited resources, such as labour, material, machine, time,
warehouse space, capital, energy, etc., to several competing
activities, such as products, services, jobs, new equipment,
projects, etc., on the basis of a given criterion of optimality.
Scarce resources mean resources that are not infinite in
availability during the planning period. The criterion of
optimality generally is either performance, return on
investment, profit, cost, utility, time, distance, etc.
• Many business and economic situations are
concerned with a problem of planning activity. In
each case, there are limited resources at your
disposal and your problem is to make efficient
and effective use of such resources so as to yield
the maximum production or to minimize the cost
of production, or to give the maximum profit, etc.
Such problems are referred to as the problems of
constrained optimization. Linear programming is
a technique for determining an optimum schedule
of interdependent activities in view of the
available resources
• Programming is just another word for planning
and refers to the process of determining a
particular plan of action from amongst several
alternatives.
• programming also refers to modeling and
solving a problem mathematically that
involves the economic allocation of limited
resources by choosing a particular course of
action or strategy among various alternative
strategies to achieve the desired objective.
• Linear programming problem was first
developed by George B. Dantzing to primarily
for solving military logistics problem. But
now, it is being used extensively in all
functional areas of management, airlines,
agriculture, military operations, oil refining,
education, energy planning, pollution control,
transportation planning and scheduling,
research and development, health care system,
etc.
• What is linear programming? “Linear
programming is a resourceful mathematical
technique in O.R. and a plan of action to solve
a given problem involving linearly related
variables in order to achieve the laid down
objective function under a given set of
constraints.
 characteristics of linear programming
• Any linear programming problems have the following key
characteristics:
• 1. Objectives. Objectives can be expressed in a standard
form viz, maximize/minimize Z = f (x), where Z is called
the objective function. The objective function of each LPP
is expressed in terms of decision variables to optimize the
criterion of optimality (also called measure of-
performance) such as profit, cost, revenue, distance, etc. In
its general form, it is expressed as: Optimize (maximize or
minimize) Z= C1x1 + C2x2 + …+ Cnxn, where Z is the
measure-of-performance which is a function of x1, x2,…
xn to the measure-of-performance Z. The optimal value of
the given objective function is obtained by the graphical
• 2. Constraints. The resources are scarce. They are limited.
The scarcity of resources is expressed using inequalities.
Therefore, constraints are capable of being expressed in
the form of equality, or inequality viz, f (x) = or ≥ or ≤ k,
where k = constant and x ≥ 0.
• 3. Resources to be optimized are capable of being
quantified in numerical terms.
• 4. The variables are linearly related to each other.
• 5. More than one solution exists, the objective being to
select the optimum solution.
• 6. The LP technique is based on simultaneous solutions of
linear equations.
 Definition of terms employed in LPP

• a) Basic Solution. For set of m simultaneous

equations in n variables (n>m), a solution
obtained by setting (n-m) variables equal to
zero and solving for remaining m equations in
m variables is called a basic solution. The
(nm) variables whose value did not appear in
this solution are called non-basic variables and
the remaining m variables are called basic
variables.
• b) Basic Variables. The variable whose value is obtained
from the basic solution is called basic variables.
• c) Non-basic Variables. The variables whose values are
assumed as zero in the basic solution are known as
nonbasic variables.
• d) Solution. A solution to an LPP is the set of values of
the variables which satisfies the set of constraints of the
problem.
• e) Feasible Solution. A feasible solution to an LPP is the
set of values of the variables which satisfies the set of
constraints as well as the non-negative condition of the
problem.
• f) Optimum (Optimal) Solution. A feasible
solution of an LPP is said to be an optimum
(optimal) if it also optimizes the objective function
of the problem. In other words, optimum solution
is the set of values which satisfies the set of
constraints, the non-negative conditions and the
objective function of the problem.
• g) Slack Variables. Linear equations are solved
through equality form of equations. Normally,
constraints are given in the “less than or equal” (≤)
form.
• The added variables to the constraints to make them
an equality equation in LPP are called slack
variables and often denoted by the letter ‘S’. See
the following example to understand how slack
variable is added to the constraints.
• Example1: 2x + 3y ≤ 500. In this equation, the left-
hand side of the equation is assumed to be less than
the right hand side of the equation. To convert it
into equality, slack variable is to be added to the left
hand side of the equation as follows: 2x + 3y + S1=
500, Where S1 = slack variable.
• h) Surplus Variable. Some times, constraints are given in
the “more than or equal” (≥) form. In such cases, we
subtract an appropriate variable to make it into the
“equality” (=) form. Hence, variables subtracted from the
constraints to make it an “equality” equation in an LPP is
called surplus variables and often represented by the
letters ‘S’. In this case, the left-hand side of the equation
is greater than the right hand side of the equation and to
equalize it with the right hand side of the equation,
surplus variable is subtracted from the left-hand side.
Example: 3x + 4y ≥100 is converted as 3x + 4y – S1 =
100, where S1 is a surplus variable.
formulation of mathematical model of LP
The procedure for mathematical formulation of a linear
programming problem consists of the following major
steps:
Step 1. Study the given situation to find the key decisions
to be made.
Step 2. Identify the variables involved and designate them
by symbols xj (1, 2,…, n).
Step 3. State the feasible alternatives which generally are: xj
≥ 0, for all j.
Step 4. Identify the constraints in the problem and express
them as linear inequalities or equations, LHS of which are
linear functions of the decision variables.
Step 5. Identify the objective function and express it as a