Outline

Background
Refinery Example

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

MA 2071 A 05
Bill Farr

September 2, 2005

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Background
Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Refinery Example

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Introduction

Many industrial problems in manufacturing and resource allocation

can be expressed as linear systems. This presentation provides an
introduction to a simple class of these problems.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Problem Statement

Your company produces m products P1 , P2 , . . . , Pm in n

manufacturing facilities, F1 , F2 , . . . , Fn .
For simplicity, assume that the input to each facility consists
of a single raw material.
Given the demand or production targets for each of your
products, determine the allocation of your raw material
among the manufacturing facilities that will produce the
desired output.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Production Vectors
Definition
For each manufacturing facility Fi , the vector vi is the vector in
Rm whose j th entry is the amount of product Pj it can produce
per unit of raw material.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Production Vectors
Definition
For each manufacturing facility Fi , the vector vi is the vector in
Rm whose j th entry is the amount of product Pj it can produce
per unit of raw material.
Example
Suppose that a particular facility produces 100 widgets, 300
spindles, and 533 brackets per unit of input. The production vector
would be as follows.

100
300
533

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Target or Demand Vector

Definition
The Target or Demand vector, b, is the vector in Rm whose j th
entry is the production target or demand for the j th product.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Target or Demand Vector

Definition
The Target or Demand vector, b, is the vector in Rm whose j th
entry is the production target or demand for the j th product.
Example
Suppose that you wanted to produce 5000 widgets, 2000 spindles,
and 7299 brackets. The demand vector would be

5000
2000
7299

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Resource Allocation Vector

Definition
The Resource Allocation Vector, x, is the vector in Rn whose
j th entry is the number of units of raw material to be allocated
to the j th manufacturing facility.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Resource Allocation Vector

Definition
The Resource Allocation Vector, x, is the vector in Rn whose
j th entry is the number of units of raw material to be allocated
to the j th manufacturing facility.
Example
Suppose that you have four manufacturing facilities. The vector
below shows an example resource allocation vector. It says that
facility F1 requires 205 units of raw material, F2 requires 45 units
of raw material, and so on.

205
45

3007
550
MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Output Vector

Definition
The Output Vector from facility Fi is the vector whose j th entry
is the amount of product Pj produced from a given resource vector
x. Since xi is the number of units of input to facility Fi and vi is
the production vector for Fi , the output vector from facility Fi is
just
x i vi

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Linear System - Vector form

To get the linear system, you just add up the outputs from each
facility and set the sum equal to the demand vector. This gives the
following.
x1 v1 + x2 v2 + . . . + xn vn = b

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Introduction
Problem Statement
Problem Formulation as a Linear System

Linear System - Matrix form

If we define A to be the matrix whose columns are the production

vectors v1 , v2 , . . . , vn then we have the linear system given below.
Ax = b

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Refinery Example

Example
A small petroleum refining company has three refineries. Each
refinery starts with crude oil and produces three products: motor
oil, diesel fuel, and gasoline. A waste product, called parrafin, is
also produced. Given the demand for each of the products, you
want to determine the allocation of crude oil to each refinery.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Production Data

Example
The numbers in the table are gallons of product or waste produced
from each barrel of crude oil. (A barrel is a unit of measurement,
equal to 42 gallons, used mainly for historical reasons.)
Product
motor oil
diesel fuel
gasoline
paraffin

Refinery 1
15
10
5
3

Refinery 2
3
14
5
5

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Refinery 3
3
5
12
2

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Demand for Products

Example
Suppose that the current daily demand from your distributor for
products is as follows.
1950 gallons of motor oil
3100 gallons of diesel fuel
5100 gallons of gasoline.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Linear System

Example
Using the entries from each column of the table for the three
products and the demand numbers from the previous slide, you get
the following linear system in augmented matrix form.

15 3 3 1950
10 14 5 3100
5 5 12 5100

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

RREF and Solution

Example
To solve for the crude oil inputs for each refinery, obtain the RREF
for the linear system on the previous slide.

1 0 0 169
4
0 1 0 215
4
0 0 1 385
The entries in the last column are the crude oil allocations for the
three refineries.

MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation

Outline
Background
Refinery Example

Problems for Further Investigation

1

Suppose that the demand for each product doubled

simultaneously. How would your answer change? Explain your
result mathematically.

Now suppose that another distributor has come forward and

says that it would require 750 gallons of motor oil, 2000
gallons of diesel and 2000 gallons of gasoline per day. How
would you set up production to satisfy this distributor only?
That is, suppose this is the only distributor to which the
company is selling. Is there only one way of doing this?

Now calculate the needs of each refinery, in barrels of crude

oil per day, if both distributors are to be satisfied. How does
this compare to your two previous answers? What
mathematical conclusion can you draw?
MA 2071 A 05 Bill Farr

Manufacturing and Resource Allocation