INTRODUCTION TO QUANTITATIVE METHODS

LP FORMULATION

Objective: To maximise the total profit for the flight by determining how much of each
cargo should be accepted and how each cargo should be distributed among the
compartments of a cargo plane.

Following are given:

1. There are 3 compartments in the cargo plane (front, centre and back).

2. Capacity limits of space and weight in each compartment are as tabulated

below.

Space Capacity (Cubic

Compartment Weight Capacity (tons)
Feet)
Front 12 7000
Centre 18 9000
Back 10 5000

3. Weight of cargo in respective compartments must be the same proportion of

that compartment’s weight capacity.

Therefore,

Proportion of weight of cargo in front, centre and back should be

12 : 18 : 10

= 6:9:5

4. Cargoes that have been offered have the following details as tabulated below:-

Volume (cubic
Cargo Weight (tons) Profit ($/ton)
feet/ton)
1 20 500 320
2 16 700 400
3 25 600 360
4 13 400 290

LP MODEL FORMULATION

To meet the objective of profit maximisation, we should maximise

320 x (Weight of Cargo 1 in all three compartments) + 400 x (Weight of Cargo 2 in

all three compartments) + 360 x (Weight of Cargo 3 in all three compartments) + 290
x (Weight of Cargo 4 in all three compartments)

Decision Variables

Let Xij be the weight (in tons) of cargo where i is the Cargo i (Cargo 1, Cargo 2, Cargo
3 or Cargo 4) and j is the Compartment j (Compartment 1 for front, Compartment 2
for centre and Compartment 3 for back); Where, i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and j = 1, 2, 3
The nomenclature of the Cargo type and compartment combination are tabulated
below.

Weights of Cargos Front Centre Back

Cargo 1 X11 X12 X13
Cargo 2 X21 X22 X23
Cargo 3 X31 X32 X33
Cargo 4 X41 X42 X43

OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

Max Z:

320 x (X11 + X12 + X13) + 400 x (X21 + X22 + X23) + 360 x (X31 + X32 + X33) +
290 x (X41 + X42 + X43)

CONSTRAINTS

(a) Weight Capacity (in tons) Constraint of Each Compartment as per Table 1

X11 + X21 + X31 + X41  12

X12 + X22 + X32 + X42  18
X13 + X23 + X33 + X43  10

(b) Space Capacity (in cubic ft) Constraint of each Compartment as per Table 1

500 x X11 + 700 x X21 + 600 x X31 + 400 x X41  7000

500 x X12 + 700 x X22 + 600 x X32 + 400 x X42  9000
500 x X13 + 700 x X23 + 600 x X33 + 400 x X43  5000

(c) Proportion Constraint of Each Type of Cargo in Each Compartment

(X11 + X21 + X31 + X41) = (X12 + X22 + X32 + X42) = (X13 + X23 + X33 + X43)
6 9 5

 9 x (X11 + X21 + X31 + X41) – 6 x (X12 + X22 + X32 + X42) = 0

5 x (X11 + X21 + X31 + X41) – 6 x (X13 + X23 + X33 + X43) = 0 and
5 x (X12 + X22 + X32 + X42) – 9 x (X13 + X23 + X33 + X43) = 0

(d) Weight Constraint of Cargo for Shipment

X11 + X12 + X13  20

X21 + X22 + X23  16
X31 + X32 + X33  25
X41 + X42 + X43  13

(e) Weight of each type of cargo in any compartment is  0

 Xij  0 for i = 1, 2, 3, 4 and j = 1, 2, 3